USPTO Replaced TESS With New Trademark Search Tool in 2023: What Founders Should Know

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The US Patent and Trademark Office retired its longtime Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) on November 30, 2023, replacing it with a new cloud-based tool called Trademark Search, accessible at tmsearch.uspto.gov. The free platform requires no account and offers both a simple search box and an advanced query builder with wildcards and Boolean operators. Founders checking startup names should search exact spellings, close variants, and phonetic equivalents, then filter results by trademark status and the relevant Nice Classification class out of 45 total. A clean federal search result does not guarantee full clearance, as common-law rights from unregistered use, state-level registrations, and related-goods conflicts can still pose legal risks. For complete protection, experts recommend a formal clearance search beyond the USPTO database.

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