I was helping a client last month decide on a brand name for an athletic apparel company.  I took the various concepts and elements they wanted to portray and came up with several candidates.  To do this I did a psychographic analysis of what they want their brand to portray compared to that of their competitors.  This is one below is one I did for a swim wear client:

psychographic

After they chose a name walked them through the trademark search process.  To do this:

  1. Go to uspto.gov
  2. Go to the Trademarks tab on the upper left corner
  3. Go to Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) on the left
  4. If your brand is just a name (and not a unique logo) then go to ‘Basic Word Mark Search’.  If it is a name and/or logo then go to either of the ‘Word and/or Design Mark Search’ options
  5. Type in your brand name.  You can adjust the search settings such as ‘Plural’, ‘Live/Dead’ etc. as you become more familiar with trademarks
  6. You’ll get a list of trademarks that are the same or similar.
  7. If it’s available and/or the closest other trademark is fairly dissimilar and/or in a different industry, you’re probably in luck!

There are a BUNCH of details regarding trademarks within the realm of intellectual property so I can send you some pertinent info.

Happy filing!