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How do you ensure that your registered trademark for your business is protected from those who try to infringe upon your brand? A trademark monitoring service, also commonly called a trademark watch service, can save you a ton of time to make sure that others aren’t stealing your hard-earned trademarked name, logo, tagline, or website brand.
How do trademark watch services work? What do you need to look for in a trusted trademark monitoring service? As a sole proprietor, I’ve done countless hours of research into legal trademark registration and other trademark services. So, my goal is to help answer these questions and give you your best options as a small business with a limited budget as well as some higher-end options if you can afford them.
| For Small Businesses | International Monitoring | Full Brand Monitoring |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
| Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website |
| Read Review | Read Review | Read Review |
How Does A Trademark Watch Service Work?
Every service is different in what they monitor and the features they offer. Basic services only watch the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) federal database for new filings, while others take a broader approach by monitoring Intellectual Property (IP) offices around the world. In any case, if these services detect any potential copycats or extremely similar marks, they’ll alert you either weekly or monthly, depending on the company you choose.
Why Is Trademark Monitoring So Important?
If you’ve already spent countless hours researching, developing, and getting the green light from the USPTO for your brand’s name, logo, or other trademark needs, it’s crucial to protect all of these from infringement once they’re in the public space. A mark that’s similar to yours could confuse customers and potentially invalidate your own trademark over time.
Many IP experts say that early detection of a potential infringement is key. Why? It’s significantly less expensive in attorney fees to stop a trademark application in its tracks than it is to try to void a trademark that’s already been registered. That’s one of the major reasons why trademark monitoring is so important. Trademark watching can save you money and time in the long run.
Need To Register A Trademark?
Best Trademark Monitoring Services
I’ve chosen these services as your best options based on company reputation, types of services offered, pricing, customer feedback, and other factors.
Best For Small Businesses: LegalZoom Review
LegalZoom, a trusted online legal service since 2001, is my top choice for small businesses. For a reasonable $175 per year, LegalZoom’s trademark monitoring software tracks the USPTO database for potential infringements across multiple classes of goods and services.
Their software does a deep dive, looking for “knockoffs” or deceptively similar trademarks. The goal here is to find marks that sound alike or differ in spelling by only a letter or two.
LegalZoom Legal Services is the #1 law firm trademark filer by volume for U.S.-based businesses at the USPTO. This online firm has over 30 trademark attorneys, each with years of experience in trademark law. LegalZoom also offers several DIY search packages, attorney-led trademark registration, and trademark renewal services.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable pricing | Only monitors the USPTO federal database |
| Offers multiple trademark services, including attorney-led registration, monitoring, and DIY searches | You only get monthly reports, not weekly like some other services |
| Get a detailed report, which includes risk-ranked results | |
| #1 legal trademark filer in the U.S. |
Pricing
The following prices are per trademark.
- Trademark Monitoring: $175/year
- Trademark Registration: $599
- Federal Search: $199
- Federal, State, and Common Law Search: $299
- WorldScan International Search: $499
- View all options
In-Depth Review Of LegalZoom
Best For International Trademark Monitoring: Trama Review
Trama has garnered a fantastic reputation since its launch in 2020. This global team of lawyers and techies specializes in trademark registration, but their Trademark Watch service is certainly worth considering for USPTO filings alone or wider monitoring of trademark registers in up to 190 countries.
They offer three packages: Single Country (including the U.S.), EU+ (all 27 European Union states plus Norway, Switzerland, and the U.K.), and Global (190 countries around the world). All packages give you weekly email reports containing confusingly similar marks filed with IP offices.
Trama’s trademark watch service also gives you 20% off their legal fees. If they identify an infringement, you can contact them to evaluate your case and give you a quote. Then, Trama’s legal team drafts and submits the appropriate documents (cease and desist letter, an opposition with the IP office, a co-existence agreement, etc.). Their legal fees can be more affordable than hiring a personal attorney, particularly with the 20% discount.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Offers 3 affordable packages | Company is only a few years old |
| Uses an industry-leading similarity algorithm to uncover 99% of confusingly similar marks | Couldn’t find any customer reviews about their Trademark Watch service (but their registration service gets excellent reviews) |
| Continuous screening with weekly email reports | |
| If an infringement is found, you can contact them for initial guidance | |
| 20% discount on legal services |
Pricing
The following prices are per trademark.
- Single country: $160/year
- EU+ package: $210/year
- Global package: $270/year
- View all options
Best For Comprehensive Brand Protection: Corsearch Review
Corsearch is an excellent solution for large, enterprise-level companies with multiple trademarks and brands and professionals specializing in IP. It offers a host of products, like its AI-driven trademark monitoring software.
Keep in mind that all of their software solutions are self-driven, so you’re the one doing the work instead of having a service conducting the monitoring for you. Still, Corsearch’s trademark software is fast and easy to use — and it conducts international monitoring. Another bonus, you can run a search as often as you want.
Corsearch’s approach goes far beyond trademark watching by offering a range of additional brand and content protection solutions. For example, you can find logo infringements, product design similarities, counterfeit products, and more across millions of websites and social media.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Offers comprehensive trademark and brand monitoring across multiple media | Likely too expensive for small and medium-sized businesses |
| Options to tailor your software needs for your businesses’ goals | Must contact company for pricing and to get a demo |
| Global trademark monitoring | |
| Conduct identical, phonetically identical, or fully automated similarity searches in one click | |
| You control how often you run infringement searches |
Pricing
- Must contact Corsearch for pricing
What About Trademark Engine’s Monitoring Service?
Trademark Engine markets itself as an affordable and fast way to file your trademark, and the company also offers trademark monitoring as an add-on package starting at $199 per year. You can also sign up for their monitoring service separately; however, it’s pricey at $99 per quarter ($396 per year). Unfortunately, their website has sparse information about what their trademark watch service includes. I dug into the fine print, and here’s all I could find:
Our trademark monitoring service reviews the filing of new applications that are direct matches, phonetically similar, similar in terms of translation, or appearance by way of design to your marks as published in the Official Gazette of the USPTO and Trademark Engine, LLC.
I contacted their customer support, which was timely in responding to my question about how often you get a report. The customer representative said they send you a monthly report that shows how your mark has been used, including any new USPTO applications similar to your mark. Based on the hefty cost for what you get with Trademark Engine, I recommend going with LegalZoom instead.
What Should I Do If Someone’s Infringing On My Trademark?
There are several steps you can take to deter an infringement, depending on your situation. While these remedies are best handled with attorney assistance, it’s usually worth the cost to protect your precious brand. Some of the most common actions include:
- Sending a cease and desist letter (LegalZoom has a good attorney-drafted free template)
- Reporting the infringement to the USPTO and filing a Notice of Opposition against the mark during its thirty-day publication period
- Negotiating a co-existence agreement
- Filing a lawsuit
What If I Want To Protect My Idea Or Invention?
To protect your invention, you’ll want to file a patent. We’ve got you covered – visit our guide on the 5 steps to filing a patent to protect your invention to get started.
Are you comfortable using an online service over an attorney for trademark monitoring? Let us know in our comments!
Why Trust We Rock Your Web?
As a sole proprietor, Sally has conducted extensive research for herself and other small businesses into the legal requirements you need to consider when launching and owning a business. She’s also spent 10 years researching and testing online software solutions for a variety of business needs.
Sally is part of a team of experts at We Rock Your Web whose goal is to recommend only the best you can find at reasonable pricing for your situation. To save you precious time, we weed through all the online services that aren’t worth your money — and, as you likely know, there are many out there.
Tagged With: Comparison, Trademark
