Research first, then register!
In order to avoid cost and time-intensive mark disputes as well as false expenditures e.g. for advertising concepts or stationary, we recommend to arrange for a search for similar or identical marks, before the application is filed. With the search, the applicant receives the information giving him the possibility to measure chances and risks of a mark. However, the search record does not directly comment on the legal question of likelihood of confusion with third marks. It is up to the applicant to decide, whether and which risks he wants to take with his trademark application. We advise you before you make this decision by delivering our assessment of the search result. The search has its main relevancy not only in the registration procedure, but already at the time of the choice of the mark. In this phase a search report can serve as valuable pool of ideas for new mark creations. After the registration of the mark, the search serves furthermore as a monitoring tool. You may obtain quarterly the result of a similarity search and periodically an overview of all similar trademarks in the same industrial sector.
(By courtesy of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property)