In a recent webinar, hosted by World Trademark Review, Questel's Pascaline Bourreau and Brandstock's An-Sofie Vandelanotte shared practical insights on creating tailored and effective trademark searches by combining the latest AI trademark search technologies with human expertise. Here, we summarize some of the key points discussed.
In Tailored Trademark Searches: Where Algorithms Meet Expertise, Questel Subject Matter Expert Pascaline Bourreauand An-Sofie Vandelanotte, Deputy Team Leader Searches at Brandstock, guided attendees through the evolving trademark landscape to illustrate how supporting human expertise with AI algorithms can help trademark practitioners navigate the complexities of trademark searching more effectively.
The trigger for their presentation was one keyquestion: Is there a battle on the horizon between analysts and algorithms for trademark search supremacy—and, if so, who will win?
From Analyst vs. Algorithm to Analyst and Algorithm
Discussions around emerging technologies, such as AI, tend to focus on the likelihood of those technologies replacing human expertise, and the same applies to the trademark search sector. On the one side are those who only trust human analysts to conduct searches; on the other, those who believe those human searchers are becoming obsolete in the face of emerging technologies. But what if you combined the knowledge and expertise of a human search analyst with a cutting-edge AI trademark search tool? Wouldn't that provide the best of both worlds?
An experienced trademark analyst knows how to craft tailored Boolean searches and filter out irrelevant results while paying specific attention to the nuances of individual brand owner needs. An algorithm reduces the risk of human error when setting search criteria, runs searches without breaks, and promptly delivers an unfiltered and comprehensive set of results. By combining both, you can harness the reliability of AI with the creativity of a human specialist.
Navigating the Trademark Frontier with AI Trademark Search
As anyone who runs trademark searches will attest, there is no such thing as just a simple "trademark search." Brand owners need to run a wide variety of searches to protect and enforce their rights, from knock-out searches and similarity screenings to full clearance searches with legal opinion. Even within the parameters of those search types, the investment and results can vary depending on:
- The Researcher: Who is running the trademark search—and how much experience do they have?
- The Trademark: Is it distinctive, fanciful, diluted...?
- The Client: How large is the trademark portfolio and what resources do they dedicate to trademark searching?
- The Purpose of the Mark: Is it for a new product, a brand extension, or a short-term campaign, such as clearance to use a slogan?
- The Territory: Is it in one specific territory or region, worldwide, or somewhere more exotic?
Today's AI algorithms can handle such variations so trademark searchers can run smarter knock-out and screening searches with ease.For example, our Markify Clearance & Watch Platform employs our high-level similarity algorithm to enable searchers to quickly identify all (99+%) identical and confusingly similar trademarks. Using the platform, clients can quickly knock out identical matches, run advanced screenings, and customize more in-depth similarity searches, using AI to provide a comprehensive overview of the risks for each potential markbefore diving into deeper analysis.
From Identical Matches to Custom-Made and Advanced Similarity Searches
With Markify Clearance & Watch Platform, you can create or order five types of trademark search using our high-level similarity algorithm and comprehensive databases for trademarks, designs, domain names, business names, social apps, and pharma-in-use. This enables you to choose the right approach for each project and mark and enables you to find the right balance between analyst time vs. algorithm automation for your organization:
— Run a quick knock-out search with Markify ProSearch" (Identical Plus, nearly identical search):
- Identical results
- Plurals
- Normalized special characters
- Term(s) included
- Multiple word search returns all listed words regardless of their sequence in the result
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