How to trademark a name in 2026 step by step

The full walkthrough from search to monitoring

A trademark protects a name, logo or slogan that tells buyers who a product comes from. In most countries the strongest protection comes from registration with a trademark office, which gives you a certificate, a public record anyone can check, and the right to stop others using a confusingly similar mark for related goods and services. The process is the same in outline at the USPTO in the United States, the EUIPO for the European Union, the UKIPO in the United Kingdom and most national offices. The details, the fees and the deadlines differ, and that is where people get caught. If you are protecting a company name rather than a product name, read the guide on how to trademark a business name as well, and the shorter checklist at the top of this page.

01Run a trademark search before anything else

A trademark search tells you whether someone already owns a mark that is identical or confusingly similar to yours, for goods or services related to yours. It is the cheapest step in the whole process and the one most people skip. Typing the name into a search engine or a domain registrar is not a trademark search, because many registered marks have no website and many websites have no registered mark.

There are two depths of search, and it helps to know which one you are running.

• An availability search checks for identical and very close marks. It answers the question "is this name obviously taken" and takes minutes. Our trademark name availability search explains what it covers.
• A clearance search goes further: names that sound the same, look the same or mean the same, translations, related classes and the live or dead status of every record. It answers "is this name likely to be refused or opposed". The page on the trademark clearance search describes what a full report contains.

The search should run in every office where you sell or plan to sell within the next few years, and in the classes you will actually file in. A name can be wide open in class 9 for software and taken in class 25 for clothing. Trademarking runs the clearance kind by default across eight registries and returns a registration likelihood with the records behind it, so you can see why a name scores the way it does.

What a search cannot show is use that never reached a register. In the United States, a business that has used a name for years without registering it can still hold common law rights in its area. A quick look at marketplaces and app stores for the exact name is a sensible extra check before you commit.

02Choose the Nice classes that match what you sell

Every application lists the goods and services the mark covers, grouped into the 45 classes of the Nice Classification used by almost every office. Classes 1 to 34 are goods, 35 to 45 are services. The classes decide both what you are protected for and how much you pay, because most offices charge per class.

• Downloadable software and apps are usually class 9, while software offered online as a service is class 42.
• Clothing, footwear and headwear are class 25. Bags and leather goods sit in class 18.
• Cosmetics and soaps are class 3, candles class 4, food supplements class 5.
• Online retail and advertising services fall in class 35.

Too few classes leave gaps that a competitor can file into. Too many cost more, invite oppositions from owners in classes you do not need, and can expose the registration to cancellation for non use later. The trademark classes guide explains all 45 with examples. In Trademarking you describe what you sell in plain words and get a class suggestion with the reason for each one, plus goods and services wording taken from the office ID lists where possible, which examiners accept more readily than free text.

03Pick the offices and the filing route

A registration protects you only in the territory of the office that granted it. A US registration does nothing in Germany, and an EU trade mark covers all member states but not the United Kingdom since 2021. Start with the markets where you sell today and the ones you will enter in the next two or three years.

You can file directly with each office, or use the Madrid System run by WIPO: one international application based on a mark you have already filed at home, designating the countries you want. Madrid saves paperwork when you need many countries, but for its first five years the international registration depends on the home mark, so a weak home application puts every designation at risk. The international registration guide goes through when Madrid is the better route.

04File the application in your own name

Trademark registration starts with the application. It names the owner (you or your company, which matters later if you raise money or sell the business), shows the mark, lists the goods and services by class, and pays the fee. Some offices ask for more. The USPTO wants a specimen showing the mark in use, or a declaration that you intend to use it, and applicants domiciled outside the United States must file through a US-licensed attorney. The EUIPO requires a representative for applicants from outside the European Economic Area.

Before you press submit, check four things.

1. The owner is the right legal entity, spelled exactly as in your company records.
2. The mark is shown the way you will use it. A word mark protects the name in any style, a logo mark protects the design.
3. The goods and services wording is specific and taken from the office list where possible.
4. The fee matches the number of classes, so the office does not drop a class you meant to keep.

Trademarking prepares this package for you and you submit it in the office portal. Where an office requires a representative, a partner attorney files the same package and you remain the owner on the record. The trademark registration page explains the timelines by office and the registration cost guide breaks down official fees.

05Get through examination, publication and opposition

After filing, an examiner checks that the mark is distinctive (not purely descriptive like "Fast Delivery" for couriers) and, at offices like the USPTO, that it does not conflict with earlier registrations. If there is a problem you receive an office action or an objection, with a deadline to reply. Many objections are solved by narrowing the goods or clarifying the wording.

If the examiner accepts the mark, the office publishes it. From that day earlier owners can file an opposition within a fixed window: 30 days in the United States, two months in the United Kingdom, three months at the EUIPO. If nobody opposes, or an opposition fails, the mark proceeds to registration. The whole process takes roughly four to twelve months at the EUIPO and the UKIPO when there are no objections, and often a year or more at the USPTO.

The same window works in your favour once you own a mark. If someone else applies for a lookalike, the opposition period is your cheapest chance to stop it, much cheaper than a cancellation action or a court case years later. Our page on trademark opposition lists the windows and fees by office.

06Monitor new filings and renew on time

Registration is not the finish line. Offices do not stop other people from filing similar marks, and at the EUIPO the examiner does not even check for earlier conflicting marks; it is up to owners to oppose. That is what trademark monitoring is for: every new application in the offices you care about is compared with your marks, and you get an alert when something close appears, with the similarity, the class, the source record and the date the opposition window closes.

A good watch service has three qualities.

• It runs often enough that the opposition window is still wide open when you hear about a filing. Monthly reports can arrive with a few days left.
• It compares by sound and meaning, not only spelling, because lookalikes rarely copy letter by letter.
• It filters by class, so you are not flooded with alerts for unrelated goods.

Then come the dates that never move. Most registrations last ten years and must be renewed, and US marks also need a declaration of use between the fifth and sixth year. Missing one can cancel the registration. The trademark monitoring service and the trademark renewal service pages explain how alerts and reminders work in Trademarking, and teams with many marks can read about trademark management software.

Common mistakes when you trademark a name

• Searching after the branding work. Run the search on the shortlist, before the logo, the packaging and the domain.
• Picking a descriptive name. A name that describes the product is hard to register and easy to copy. Invented and suggestive names register more easily.
• Filing in the founder's personal name by accident. Decide the owner on purpose. Transferring a mark later costs time and fees.
• Copying goods wording from a competitor. Their list fits their business, not yours, and broad wording invites objections.
• Assuming one country covers the world. Rights are territorial. Plan the offices with your sales plan.
• Forgetting the mark after registration. Without monitoring and a renewal calendar, a registered mark slowly loses its value.

If you want to see where your own name stands, use the name check below. It searches the main registers, scores the registration likelihood and lists the closest marks with a link to each official record. The result is an estimate based on public data, not legal advice, and for a dispute or an unusual case an attorney is the right next step.