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About this tool
Score a brand name for distinctiveness and get a jurisdiction-specific clearance checklist before you commit.
The Trademark Name Availability Checklist scores a candidate brand name against the trademark distinctiveness spectrum — generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary, fanciful — and then walks through the clearance steps for the office you plan to file with. It flags descriptive wording, geographic terms and corporate suffixes, suggests the Nice classes your goods or services fall in, and states the real opposition window and renewal term for the USPTO, EUIPO, UKIPO, IP India or a Madrid filing. It is a self-service knock-out check, not a legal clearance opinion.
Open Trademark Name Availability Checklist on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Type your candidate into 'Brand name you are considering', set 'Where do you want protection?' to United States, European Union, United Kingdom, India or Multiple countries / international, and answer 'What do you sell?'.
Read the Indicative distinctiveness score out of 100 and its band, then the Office, Likely Nice classes, Opposition window and Registration term rows, plus any 'What weakens this name' flags.
Work down the Clearance checklist, ticking each item so Checklist progress updates, then press Copy result to keep the checklist or Reset to try another name.
Catches the names no search can save, before you spend anything on searching.
Opposition windows and search tools differ per office; the checklist uses the right ones.
Maps common industries to the classes they actually file in, so scope is set deliberately.
Search the register of the office you would file with — USPTO Trademark Search in the US, EUIPO eSearch or TMview in Europe, the UKIPO search in Britain, IP India's public search in India — for the exact name and for similar-sounding and similar-looking variants in your Nice classes. Then search the open web, app stores and company registers, because an unregistered business already trading under the name can still have enforceable rights.
Because trademark law will not let one trader monopolise the ordinary words competitors need to describe the same goods. A merely descriptive mark is refused unless you prove the public already treats it as your brand, and misspellings like Kwik or Lite are judged exactly as the correctly spelled word would be.
The Nice Classification sorts goods and services into 45 classes — 1 to 34 for goods, 35 to 45 for services — and your registration only protects you in the classes you file in. Fees are charged per class in every major office, so file for what you sell now plus the adjacent classes you genuinely plan to enter.
No. A domain registration, a social handle and a company incorporation are separate registers that confer no trademark right, and someone with an earlier trademark can force you off any of them. In the US, trademark rights come from use in commerce or from registration — this is informational only, so speak to a trademark attorney before you commit budget to a name.