Free Trademark Search: How to Check a Name in the US, UK, and EU

Yes, you can run a trademark search for free

A free trademark search isn't a stripped-down teaser — it's how the system is designed. Trademark registers are public records, and the offices that maintain them publish free search tools: the USPTO for the United States, the UK IPO for the United Kingdom, EUIPO for the European Union, and WIPO's Global Brand Database spanning many registers at once. You can check a name against all of them today without spending anything.

The catch is never cost. It's coverage: each free trademark search tool answers one register's question, defaults to exact-ish matching, and leaves you to judge what the results mean. This guide walks through each tool in turn, then covers the identical-vs-similar gap that decides whether your search actually protected you.

The four free trademark search engines worth knowing

Searching the US register (formerly the Trademark Electronic Search System)

For most founders the US register is the highest-stakes check, and the workflow is straightforward. Start with your exact name and scan for live records — a "dead" status means the application was abandoned or the registration lapsed, which usually (not always) lowers the risk. Then search again with variations: plural and singular, hyphenated and joined, obvious misspellings, and phonetic cousins. Finally, look at what each hit covers. Two businesses can share a name when their goods and services don't overlap, which is why the register is organized into 45 classes — our classes guide explains how to read them. A hit in an unrelated class is often survivable; a similar name in your class is the one to take seriously.

IPO trademark search: checking the UK and the EU

If you'll sell into the UK or EU — and for online businesses that's most of them — the same pass repeats on two more registers. To search the IPO register for the UK, use the GOV.UK tool linked above; it supports word searches and lets you filter by class. For the EU, EUIPO's eSearch plus covers all 27 member states in one query and shows pending applications alongside registrations, which matters because an application filed last month can still outrank your launch next month. Run the same variations you used on the US register: exact, plural, hyphenated, sound-alike. And if a name comes back taken somewhere that matters, taken doesn't always mean game over — but you want to know before the logo files exist.

The gap DIY searches miss: identical vs. similar

Here's the part that separates a reassuring search from a useful one. Every free tool above defaults to matching the string you typed — but trademark conflicts are judged on confusing similarity, not identity. An examiner can refuse your application, and a brand owner can oppose your use, over a name that merely sounds like theirs, looks like theirs, or means the same thing for related goods. "Nuvora" vs. "Novora", "Fitly" vs. "Fittly", a one-letter swap on an established mark — none of these surface in an exact search, and they're exactly the conflicts that generate refusals and demand letters.

Manual similarity searching is possible — professionals do it with structured queries, truncation, and phonetic variants — but it takes practice, multiplied by every register you check. Our guide to identical vs. similarity screening unpacks exactly what each level catches. It's the single biggest reason a clean-looking DIY search still ends in a refused application, and filing fees aren't refundable — our cost guide has the numbers.

When one combined check beats four round trips

A thorough manual pass — US, UK, EU, plus variations on each — is genuinely free and genuinely worth doing when you're down to one final candidate. But most naming happens upstream of that: you're weighing five or ten candidates, and running every variation through every register for each one is where DIY breaks down. For that stage, a combined trademark search across USPTO, EUIPO, and UK IPO collapses the round trips into one pass, and a full free name check adds the other availability questions — domains and social handles — that decide a launch just as often. The registers stay free either way; a combined check just spends your time on judgment instead of query mechanics. For the full four-front checklist, see how to check if a business name is taken.