Trade mark and design information products

Abstract

Trade mark and design information is becoming increasingly important and available. This article provides a broad picture of these resources, primarily the registers of the appropriate intellectual property right registration authorities. For both trade marks and designs, the options for search of the national registers and for commissioning national IP offices or private companies to carry out searches are summarised. For trade marks, search modes for the International register under the Madrid Agreement and Protocols and for the Community Trade Mark (CTM) register of OHIM are described. Analogously for designs, search of the register of International registrations under the Hague Agreement and Protocols is explained; plans for a Community Design register in due course are foreshadowed.