Search trademarks in the EU

The most effective way to search trademarks is to use www.tmview.europa.eu which is website that offers access to several EU member state databases simultaneously, along with the database of WIPO and OHIM. This is a online consultation tool provided by the TMview Steering Group and OHIM free of charge. It is multilingual and easy-to-use, and gives access to trade mark applications and registrations of the participating official trade mark offices in a single place.

The TMview application provides public and free access to the trade mark data of the official trade mark offices participating in the project (more than half of the EU members in 2012).

The results are displayed instantly. Please note that www.tmview.europa.eu is a non-authentic source for IP rights. The most important information about this database is available here: http://www.tmview.europa.eu/helpFiles/en/faq.html

Quick search: enter one or more words that are part of a trade mark name and launch the search under www.tmview.europa.eu

Advanced Search: just click and you can search with up to ten complementary search criteria, including mark name, applicant name and Nice class. Useful help is available here: http://www.tmview.europa.eu/helpFiles/en/help.html#13

Background

Trade mark protection and registration can be granted through official trade mark Offices at national, international or European Community level. All these trade marks coexist and complement each other. Businesses can consult all trade mark data by accessing individually the websites of the different official trade mark Offices. Without TMview they are confronted with a different layout each time, different languages, they may even be asked to pay for this consultation service.

For the first time an all-in-one TM search tool is available covering data from all the participating official trade mark Offices free of charge. The information can be found in all languages used in the different participating Offices.

Although this data is accessible via a centralized system each Office remains the owner of the data and continues to be responsible for its updating and maintenance. The information is provided by the trade mark offices that own the content and are responsible for its daily update.

You can use TMview to:
- Carry out a trade mark search
- Check for the availability of your trade mark name
- Discover what your competitors are protecting
- Provide information to trade mark examiners:

According to some legislations trade mark applicants are not required to file priority or seniority documentation whenever these are available on the Websites of the respective National Offices. TMview may thus also be used as a working tool for trade mark examiners who may access documents on the website.

One single tool and...

- Gateway to 5 Million trade mark applications and registrations in its first release
- Details on trade marks such as legal status, image, list of goods and services, etc.
- Link to national database
- Possibility to print and download documents
- First hand information from the official trade mark registers
- all in one: all TMs - national, regional, international - are visible
- all languages available: upon integration of new data into TMview from a new official trade mark office or organization the respective language(s) will be made available
- all official trade mark offices accessible: upon integration of a new official trade mark office or organization there will be a direct link to this office and its data
- 24/7 availability
- broad search results
- daily up-dated information
- free of charge

TMview is in constant evolution: it aims to be the platform for data from all 27 EU Member States in addition to the information available from OHIM and WIPO - in total some 8,5 Million trade marks.

Available TMs in 2012:

AT Austria
BG Bulgaria
BX Benelux
CZ Czech Republic
DE Germany
DK Denmark
EE Estonia
ES Spain
FI Finland
FR France
GB United Kingdom
HU Hungary
IE Ireland
IT Italy
LT Lithuania
LV Latvia
MT Malta
PL Poland
PT Portugal
RO Romania
SE Sweden
SK Slovakia
SI Slovenia
EM OHIM
WO WIPO

Not available, only under the national office:

CY Cyprus
GR Greece

(+ HR Croatia to join in 2013)