Register of trademarks, what types of registers there are and how to use them

Registration of a trademark is a necessary condition for providing it with legal protection. A record of this is made in state registers. This article details how to use registries to find the information you need and what you need to consider when purchasing and transferring trademark rights.

What is a trademark registry

Trademark registers are official information resources that serve to register and systematize data on trademarks. They indicate basic information about the copyright holder, the date of priority (superiority), the list of goods/services in respect of which the designation is registered, the date of registration, information about the transfer (alienation) of exclusive rights and other changes.

In all countries, the official register is maintained by the government agency (patent office) for intellectual property.

There are other databases on the Internet based on this registry, but they may be incomplete and inaccurate. The inclusion of a trademark in the state register is essentially its registration. It is produced in accordance with national intellectual property rights requirements.

VPTB Resources

Service based on the State Patent Fund :

• reference and consulting,
• information and bibliographic services;
• determination of the legal status of foreign patent documents;
• guide to VPTB funds;
• electronic catalog of patent and legal literature;
• bibliographic lists, patent information news, Internet navigator of patent information resources

• PatSearch is a professional information retrieval system of FIPS.
• Global Patent Index is a professional information and retrieval system of the EPO.

Russian registries

Russian state registers of trademarks are published in official bulletins, which are published twice a month. Previously, they were issued on paper, and since 2014 they have been posted on the website of the Federal State Budgetary Institution FIPS (Rospatent) in the form of an electronic publication in pdf format. Starting from 2021, the newsletters are updated continuously.

In addition, the department's website contains databases of registers. Their types are described in the table below.

Information on the records management of trademarks has been available in the register for documents since 2008.

Subscription publications

• Bulletins on DVD

Applications (for inventions), full descriptions of issued patents for inventions and title pages of utility models, information about issued patents for industrial designs, information about registered trademarks, service marks, patents, computer programs, TIMS; notifications of all changes, incl. legal status, in descriptions of security documents. Includes PDF version and Mimosa information retrieval system.

• Retrospective on DVD

Annual sets of complete descriptions of industrial property objects with Mimosa IRS. Inventions – 1924–2013, Utility models 1994–2013, Industrial designs 1993–2013, Trademarks 1991–2013.

• Reference and search engine on DVD

• CISPATENT on DVD

CIS regional disk with full descriptions of inventions of the CIS member states, as well as the EAPO

Search in the Russian register of trademarks

In the register itself, a trademark can be found by registration number or publication date, if known.

The site also has a search engine, which has more extensive capabilities.

After clicking on the above link, you need to click on the “Go to search” button. Next, a list of databases will appear from which you should select “Russian trademarks”.

The page that opens provides more than 20 fields that allow you to search according to various criteria:

• words contained in the trademark name
• date of application, registration and expiration of legal protection
• application and registration number
• date of publication in the official gazette
• name of the copyright holder and country of its location
• ICGS classes in respect of which the trademark is registered
• number, filing date and country for the first (priority) application
• color combination
• unprotected elements
• correspondence address
• date of publication of the document change notice and other legal registrations
• document status and trademark type (check boxes are placed in these fields)

You can learn about the purpose of each of these parameters and the use of logical operators by clicking on the “?” next to the name of the request area.

The Title and Main Query Area fields are identical for this database. Text can be entered in Russian or English, letter case is not taken into account. Fuzzy search will find all documents that contain one of the words or similar terms.

Logical search is used to set more stringent parameters. The following logical operators are used:

• AND (“and”) – the search result will contain all the specified words;
• OR (“or”) – the report will contain all trademarks containing at least one word from the phrase in the name;
• NOT (“not”) – to exclude a specific word from search results (used to filter a large list in a report);
• * – words that partially match the search query will be returned.

Next to the drop-down list for selecting fuzzy and logical search there is a “Compliance level” field, which can take 3 values:

• “1” – the issue will contain the largest number of documents, the editorial distance takes the value “2”;
• “2” – the editorial distance is set to 1;
• “3” – excluding editorial distance.

Editing distance is a parameter that is used to determine the similarity of 2 lines (inserting, deleting or replacing one or more characters so that one line turns into another).

So, for example, if you search for a trademark name that contains the word “beast,” you will get the results shown in the table below.

Please note that the free search procedure is only available for the 2 most recently published bulletins.

Search result for match level 3

Advanced search functions are used mainly to analyze a trademark for “uniqueness” before filing an application with Rospatent. The check allows you to identify previously registered (or declared) similar and identical designations that “interfere” with registration. Search results can be printed on a printer.

Document status

The document status can be checked in two ways:

• directly in open registers, if the trademark number is known
• in the found document in its top margin

Statuses of trademarks in the registry
In the registry, the status of a trademark is displayed in the form of a circle filled with color:

It can take 4 values:

• “no data” – this status is possible for old documents that have not yet been digitized;
• “valid” – the trademark is granted legal protection;
• “expired”: the validity period of the security document (certificate) is 10 years; if the copyright holder has not submitted an application for its renewal (it must be submitted during the last year of validity), then the document acquires this status;
• “terminated” – protection is terminated for a previous reason, when registration is challenged in Rospatent, in court or at the request of the copyright holder.

In an open document, its status is indicated in the top line, using the same color identification.

Trademark certificate status

You can get other useful information here:

• when you click on the application number (1), a link to its full-text official publication, facsimile images of the application, information on incoming and outgoing correspondence opens
• When you click on the publication date (2), the text of the publication opens in the Rospatent bulletin in pdf format

Search for figurative trademarks

There is no search by images in the Rospatent system. If necessary, make a selection according to the ICGS class and look through all the documents from it. The generated report displays graphic images of trademarks. This work is very labor-intensive, since it is necessary to look through a large number of notations and evaluate their similarity to the point of confusion. If you need to search in several classes, then use the logical operator OR (“or”).

An example of a search for class 5 of the ICGS, graphic trademarks

The search procedure is also free only for the last 2 newsletters.

Paid search in the trademark register

To be able to perform an advanced search throughout the entire Rospatent database, you must register on the website, make an online payment using a bank card (payments from Visa and Maestro cards are accepted) or conclude an agreement (in paper form or an electronic offer agreement) and make payment via bank. In the latter case, a copy of the payment document marked by the bank must be sent to the address or fax (8-495) 531-63-18.

Search costs are shown in the table below.

After payment is made, a password for accessing the databases is sent to the user's email address. When the funds in the account run out, the contract is considered terminated. Payment details can be found on the paid page.

One search is understood as pressing the “Search” button in the trademark database, and a request is a search instruction of any level of complexity (text that includes an image of the request and instructions on logical operations).

FIPS services

• Information on payment of duties;
• written information on the number of the title of protection about copyright holders, authors, validity periods, registered agreements, international registrations;
• information on the use of industrial property objects based on state statistical reporting;
• search in the AS TK RF;
• search for information about registered computer programs, databases and TIMS;
• PCT application processing services;
• services of the Chamber of Patent Disputes, etc.

• Written consultations;
• thematic databases on DVD;
• searches in FIPS databases for a specific patent holder;
• search for registered contracts;
• international searches;
• patent searches not related to the filed application;
• conducting internships, seminars, conferences;
• provision of a PO box;
• services of the FIPS Certification Center;
• printing services, etc.

We have already found out that a trademark is the most important means of individualization, distinguishing a specific product from thousands of similar ones. Today there are more than six hundred thousand of them registered in the Russian Federation. In our article we will give recommendations on working with the register and find out whether it is possible to find the trademark of interest through the Rospatent website.

How do you know that the validity of a trademark can be extended?

The renewal of a trademark is carried out during the last year of its legal protection. Its expiration date is indicated in documents located in public registers:

Expiration date of trademark protection

In addition, the validity of the certificate can be extended at the end of this period within 6 months by submitting a corresponding petition to the patent office and paying a fee of 2.5 thousand rubles.

If the copyright holder misses this deadline, then it will no longer be possible to restore legal protection for the trademark. In this case, other persons can register such a designation or one similar to it in a group of similar goods.

Information on the extension of the term of protection is also published in the registers within 2 months after filing the application. These can be found at the bottom of the document.

An example of a record of extending the term of protection of trademark No. 164551

It is also necessary to remember that in the absence of an extension of the legal protection of a trademark, all agreements concluded to transfer rights to it lose their legal force. You can apply for an extension either independently or with the help of representatives - patent attorneys.

Checking on specialized sites for money

All paid checks take time. The faster it is carried out, the more expensive the services will cost. So, for example, at FIPS, for 20 days of use the price is about four thousand rubles, and if this period is reduced to 14 days, you will have to pay twice as much. However, there is no guarantee that the system will detect any matches.

Many companies, bureaus and firms also provide paid services for checking trademarks. This allows you to get all the necessary information for a fee with the help of experts and professionals in this field.

Thus, by drawing up an agreement with the GPG Patent Bureau, you can conduct a check in relation to registered names and applications under consideration, lasting 5 days for 10 thousand rubles, three days - 15 thousand rubles.

When contacting the Techpatent patent office, you will have to fork out 15-30 thousand rubles to receive information within five days. You can find quite a lot of such bureaus on the Internet, so the choice is yours.

How to check a trademark before purchasing it?

Before purchasing a trademark, you must first check its registration. Since the subject of the agreement is already known, the search can be done using a simplified form using the registration number. If the copyright holder refuses to provide a trademark number, this may indicate dishonesty.

You also need to pay attention to the following points:

• validity period of the certificate (described above how to find it)
• information about the copyright holder, the organizational form of the legal entity (they must match the information in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities)
• information about the location of the copyright holder and address for correspondence - if they have changed, the agreement will not be registered with Rospatent (the copyright holder must first bring into compliance those data in the register that require changes)
• the presence of alienation agreements, since they are an obstacle to concluding a license agreement
• the presence of licensing agreements and commercial concession agreements, since after purchasing a trademark it is necessary to make changes to them regarding the new copyright holder, and this will take some time (about 2 months) and will require payment
• state duties

If it is not planned to grant rights under existing contracts, then it is necessary to inform the current copyright holder about this so that he can terminate them. A corresponding entry on termination must appear in the register.

All types of trademark agreements must be registered with Rospatent. To protect yourself from a dishonest transaction, it is better to indicate in the agreement that the counterparty will receive remuneration only after registering the agreement with the patent office, or oblige him to compensate for losses in the event of refusal by the Federal State Budgetary Institution FIPS.

International registries

Trademarks registered under the international Madrid system can be found on the website of WIPO - the World Intellectual Property Organization. More than 120 states are its participants. The most significant advantages of registering trademarks under the Madrid system is that one application is submitted and a single fee is paid to obtain a certificate in several states at once (at the applicant’s choice).

In 2004, an online version of the ROMARIN search system appeared on the WIPO website, which allows you to track trademarks registered under the Madrid Agreement. In 2021, its technical support was discontinued and a new system was introduced - Madrid Monitor. This database contains more than 900 thousand records.

Madrid Monitor - easy search

The search for trademarks can be carried out both in a simplified mode (by name, number, date, ICGS class, country) and using advanced capabilities (similar to searching in the Rospatent databases).

Madrid Monitor - advanced search

It is also possible to search by trademark image:

An example of results for the search query “apple” is shown below.

The table with search results can be filtered by several criteria:

• document status
• country of origin
• ICGS classes
• type of trademark and others

In addition, the WIPO website has a second search engine - the Global Brand Database, which contains more than 42 million records of trademarks registered in 55 national registries and funds in different countries. Just like on the Rospatent website, there is the possibility of fuzzy and logical search, image search and several additional filters.

Global Brand Database

Using the online service ZNAKI.RU you can:

• Find identical or similar designations (trademarks, applications) in the Trademark Database using a fragment of the required designation or the entire designation,
• Search both registered trademarks and applications for registration
• Search among inactive trademarks
• In a few seconds , receive a professional report with search results.
• Conduct regular monitoring of your trademarks in order to identify similar marks at the stage of their registration.

Get started right now: register in our system, top up your personal account, and start searching in the Database of trademarks and registration applications.

Terms of service and prices for conducting searches on the page “.

Customs register

In 2007, a Customs Union was created between Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. In order to protect exclusive rights to trademarks during the import and export of products, and to reduce the number of counterfeit goods, within the framework of this union, a Customs Register of Intellectual Property Objects (CRIP) has been developed.

Inclusion of a trademark in this register is an additional measure of protection for designations. The duration of this procedure is 2-5 months. The database is located on the website of the Federal Customs Service.

Specialists of the Ezy Brand patent office will help carry out a range of work to search for similar designations in Russian and international registers: express analysis, determining the degree of risk of receiving a refusal from the patent office, detailed study of all applications and registrations. The result of an in-depth search test is a detailed report and recommendations, developed individually in each case.