TL;DR: You can pre-screen a brand name against three major trademark registers -- the USPTO (United States), EUIPO (European Union), and UKIPO (United Kingdom) -- in about 60 seconds using our free brand name generator with trademark pre-screen. It won't replace a trademark attorney's opinion, but it will tell you whether an obvious conflict exists before you spend a cent on filing fees or fall in love with a name that is already taken.

What is a trademark availability check and why does it matter?

A trademark availability check is the process of searching existing trademark registrations and pending applications to find out whether a proposed brand name (or logo, slogan, or sound mark) is already claimed by someone else in the same goods-and-services classification.

The financial stakes are real and specific. Filing a single trademark application with the USPTO costs $250 per class if you use TEAS Plus, or $350 per class with TEAS Standard. That is the cheap part. If you file without searching first and a prior registrant opposes your application, you are looking at $20,000 to $100,000 or more in legal fees to defend an opposition proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Lose the opposition, and you also lose every dollar you poured into packaging, signage, domain names, and marketing materials bearing the conflicting name.

We have watched founders rebrand six months after launch because they skipped a ten-minute search. The rebrand cost more than the original launch. A pre-screen is not a legal opinion -- it is a smoke detector. It tells you whether you should keep walking or stop and investigate.

How do USPTO TESS, EUIPO eSearch, and UKIPO search differ?

Each register covers a different jurisdiction, uses slightly different search logic, and has its own opposition timeline.

  • USPTO TESS -- The Trademark Electronic Search System covers federally registered marks and pending applications in the United States. It supports structured Boolean queries, design-code searches using the Vienna Classification, and word-mark searches across all NICE classes. The post-publication opposition window is 30 days (extendable). TESS can be frustrating: the interface feels like it was designed in 2002 because it was.

  • EUIPO eSearch -- The eSearch Plus database covers European Union Trade Marks (EUTMs) valid across all 27 EU member states, plus registered Community designs. It includes phonetic-similarity algorithms, which is a notable difference from TESS. The opposition window is three months from publication. eSearch also surfaces national marks from participating EU offices, giving you a broader picture than TESS does for the US.

  • UKIPO Search -- The UK trademark search covers marks registered in the United Kingdom. Since Brexit, UK protection is separate from EUIPO registrations. The opposition window is two months from publication. The search interface is simpler than TESS, but it lacks the phonetic matching that EUIPO provides.

All three registers use the same 45-class NICE Classification system, so at least the category codes are consistent. But the search operators, result formats, and phonetic matching capabilities vary enough that checking all three manually takes 15 to 30 minutes if you know what you are doing -- and considerably longer if you do not.

How do you read a TESS, EUIPO, or UKIPO hit?

Not every hit is a blocker. Here is how to interpret what you find.

  • Live vs. dead marks. A dead mark (status "Cancelled," "Abandoned," or "Expired") is generally not a barrier to registration, though the former owner may still have common-law rights if they continued using the mark. A live mark in your NICE class is a red flag.

  • Basis filings. In the USPTO system, look for Section 1(a) use-based filings versus Section 1(b) intent-to-use filings. An ITU filing means someone has claimed the name but may not be using it yet. It still blocks you.

  • Pending oppositions and cancellations. If a mark is under opposition or cancellation, the outcome is uncertain. Proceed with extra caution and definitely get legal advice.

  • "Too close" is a judgment call. Trademark law does not require identical spelling. If your proposed name sounds similar, looks similar, or conveys a similar commercial impression in related goods or services, it can be refused or opposed. "KLEEN" vs. "CLEAN" in the same class is trouble. "KLEEN" for software vs. "CLEAN" for janitorial services is probably fine -- but "probably" is not a word you want to bet your brand on without counsel.

The rule we follow internally: if a search turns up anything that makes us pause for even five seconds, we flag it and move on to the next candidate name. Names are cheap to generate. Legal disputes are not.

What do free pre-screens miss?

A register search -- whether manual or automated -- only shows you what is on the register. Here is what it cannot show you.

  • Common-law marks. In the United States, trademark rights arise from use, not registration. A business operating under an unregistered name in commerce still has enforceable rights in its geographic area. No database captures all of these.

  • State-level registrations. Each US state maintains its own trademark register. These are not included in TESS.

  • Pending applications not yet indexed. There is a lag between filing and database visibility. In the USPTO system, this gap can be several days to a few weeks.

  • Foreign marks not yet filed in your jurisdiction. A brand with a registered mark in Australia, for example, may not appear in USPTO, EUIPO, or UKIPO searches -- but could file in your jurisdiction tomorrow under the Paris Convention's six-month priority claim.

  • Phonetic equivalents in non-Latin scripts. If your brand name sounds like an existing mark in Mandarin, Arabic, or Cyrillic, automated English-language searches will not catch it. This matters if you plan to operate in multilingual markets.

  • Domain and social-media squatting. A name might be legally available as a trademark but practically unavailable because every relevant domain and social handle is taken. Our tool checks .com domain availability for this reason.

Free pre-screens are a filter, not a finish line. They eliminate the obvious conflicts so you can focus your attorney's billable hours on the names that actually have a chance.

When should you call a trademark attorney?

Call one before you file. Specifically, call one after your pre-screen narrows the field to one or two serious candidates and before you commit any budget to branding, packaging, or marketing.

We build websites and digital presences for trademark lawyers and IP firms -- our trademark attorney website development and IP law firm website development work gives us a front-row seat to how these practitioners operate. We are not trademark attorneys ourselves, and we do not play ones on the internet. What we can tell you from a decade of working alongside these professionals is that a proper clearance search by a qualified attorney -- including common-law searching, state registers, and a likelihood-of-confusion analysis -- typically costs $1,000 to $2,500 per mark. That is a fraction of what an opposition or rebrand costs.

If you are launching a brand that will carry real revenue, paying for a professional clearance opinion is not optional. It is foundational.

For attorneys reading this who want more clients finding them online, we also offer trademark attorney SEO -- but that is a conversation for a different day.

How does the free 60-second tool work?

Our brand name generator with trademark pre-screen works in a simple flow:

  1. You describe your brand. Tell us the industry, vibe, audience, and any keywords you care about.
  2. We generate 18 name candidates. The AI produces names across naming styles -- invented words, compounds, metaphors, and more.
  3. We create 5 customer personas. These help you evaluate each name from the perspective of people who would actually buy from you.
  4. We run a trademark pre-screen. Each name is checked against USPTO, EUIPO, and UKIPO registers for exact and near-exact matches in relevant NICE classes.
  5. We check .com domain availability. Because a name with no matching domain is a headache from day one.
  6. You get an email report. Everything lands in your inbox in about 60 seconds.

The report flags conflicts with a simple traffic-light system: green means no obvious conflicts found, yellow means a potential issue worth investigating, and red means a live registration exists in a relevant class. You take the green-light names to your trademark attorney for a full clearance search.

This tool is part of our broader brand launch package (naming to website) philosophy. We believe naming, trademark clearance, domain acquisition, and web development should flow as a single process -- not as disconnected steps spread across months and multiple vendors.

The pre-screen is free. No account required. No credit card. We built it because we got tired of designing brand identities around names that turned out to be legally unavailable.

Frequently asked questions

Is a free trademark pre-screen the same as a full clearance search?

No. A pre-screen checks federal and regional registers for exact and near-exact matches. A full clearance search, conducted by a trademark attorney, also examines common-law usage, state registrations, phonetic equivalents, and foreign filings. Always get professional clearance before filing an application.

Can I register the same trademark in the US, EU, and UK simultaneously?

You can file in all three jurisdictions, but each requires a separate application and fee. A USPTO filing starts at $250 per class, an EUIPO filing starts at EUR 850 for one class, and a UKIPO filing starts at GBP 170 for one class. Each office examines independently, so approval in one does not guarantee approval in another.

How often are the trademark databases updated in your tool?

Our pre-screen queries the most recently available public data from each register. However, all three offices have indexing delays -- typically a few days to several weeks between a new filing and its appearance in search results. For this reason, we always recommend a professional attorney search before committing to a name.