Where to search for trademarks depends on two important factors. First of all, trademarks can be either registered or unregistered. Searching for a registered trademark can be done through the registered trademark databases. Searching for unregistered trademarks involves non-trademark registry sources.

Trademark Registry Searches

These searches concentrate on the federal registry of trademarks. Exact match searches are relatively straight-forward.  For the do-it-yourselfer, the trademarks registry can be accessed through the the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO). We also provide a free prescreen search, which not only searches the trademark registry, but also over 8 million records of corporate, business and trade names across Canada.

Common-Law Searches

Since a trademark does not have to be registered in order to be valid, you should search for unregistered trademarks as well. Your least expensive and first search for exact matches should be an Internet search. Other sources are libraries, trade journals, business directories, magazines and newspapers, which can be found both on-line and off.

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