Searching images
Select type of search from drop down menu.
The image search uses the Vienna Code classification.
Using the Vienna Classification
Trade marks are classified using three levels of the Vienna Classification. These are:
| Category | This is the top level and is a very general classification e.g. Animals or Landscapes. Using this level of search is likely to retrieve a large number of results and may exceed the maximum number of results available for display. |
| Division | The second level divides the classification into a more detailed description e.g. Category: Animals Division: Birds and Bats Category: Landscapes Division: Mountains, Rocks, Grottoes Using this second level will allow a search to be focussed more accurately but may still retrieve large numbers of results especially for a search covering a large number of Nice Classes. |
| Section | The lowest level of classification. This allows a search to be focussed to a much greater level of detail e.g. Category: Animals Division: Birds and Bats Section: Penguins Category: Lanscapes Division: Mountains, Rocks, Grottoes Section: Volcano |
In some categories only two levels of the classification are used.
Examples
| To search images of | Category | Division | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dogs | Animals | Quadripeds of Series 1 | Dogs, wolves, foxes |
| Balloons | Games, Toys, Sporting Articles | Games and toys | |
| Bread | Foodstuffs | Balers' products, pastry, confectionery, chocolate | |
| Cars | Transport, Equipment for Animals | Land Vehicles | Motor Road Vehicles |
Geometric Shapes
Special care needs to be taken with searching geometric shapes. Because of the number of marks classified in this class the top level Category is not available. Example:
| To search images of | Category | Division | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Circles | Leave blank | Circle, Ellipses | |
| Triangles | Leave blank | Triangles | |
| Cubes | Leave blank | Geometric solids | Cubes |
Combining Searches
Word or Image search
This option will return marks that contain either the words from the search terms used or the images. Example:
| Word search term | Search option | Image search terms | Will find marks that contain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lady bird | OR | Animals Insects, spiders.... Insects (other than...) | Word only marks that contain the word “Ladybird” Image only marks that contain an image of a Ladybird or Ladybirds Marks that contain a combination of the word Ladybird and images of a Ladybird or Ladybirds |
Word and Image
This option will return marks that contain both the word(s) and the image search terms. Example:
| Word search term | Search option | Image search terms | Will find marks that contain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lady bird | AND | Animals Insects, spiders.... Insects (other than...) | Marks that only contain a combination of the word Ladybird and images of a Ladybird or Ladybirds |
Understanding your results
A maximum of 1000 results can be returned.
Results are displayed in ascending Nice Class order.
The search returns 500 hits as a default. This can be increased to 1000. If more than 500/1000 hits are identified by the search only a sample of hits will be shown in the results. This will not be a definitive list of results as the system does not rank the results. Even though the list appears in Nice Class order not all marks will be shown. For any search that exceeds 500/1000 it is advisable to "Amend Search".
Amend search
To limit the number of results consider:
- Limiting the number of classes you search. If you do not select any classes the search will include them all. Use the classification guide to identify the goods or services that are most important to you and also use the cross search to search related classes.
- Search classes individually if searching a very common term e.g an All class search for the word "green" brings back too many hits – a search in Class 9 brings back 342 hits (at the time of writing)
- Use "Exact" to identify exact use of term
- Use "Starts with" to see if there are marks that start with the term
- Use "Word" rather than string
- Search words and images as separate searches
- Use a more focussed image search by using a lower level Vienna classification
- Use combinations of terms using the "and"/"or" operators Use a different term e.g. one, two or three common numerals such as 100 is likely to bring back too many hits as is one, two or common sequences of three letters
Reserved marks
Reserved marks are words or images that cannot be registered as trade marks because they are protected by International convention or by national or International legislation.
This search will return four separate types of protected marks:
| Category | Type of protection | What this category includes | Classes of goods or services these marks are protected in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marks Protected under the Paris Convention Article 3 of the procedure for the selection of International Non-Proprietary Names | Names, emblems, titles, symbols etc of signatories to the Paris Convention Names of International organisations | All classes 1 to 45 |
| 2 | International non-proprietary names | Veterinary substances, pesticides, pharmaceutical preparations and substances | 5 |
| 3 | Geographical Indications Regulations 510/2006, 1493/99 and 1576/89 | Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) Geographical Designations of Origin for Wines and Spirits This includes words such as “Champagne” (wines), Dorset blue” (cheese). | 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 |
| 4 | Marks Protected under other legislation | Includes symbols such as the Red Cross, Red Crescent, Red Crystal, Olympic ring and words such as Anzac, Olympic, Red Cross, Red Crescent | All classes 1 to 45 |
Trade mark applications which consist of, contain, or closely resemble signs in these categories will be open to objection upon examination.