USPTO Trademark API — Implementing trademark availability and search — part 2
Trademarks are a valuable business asset that can help distinguish your brand and products from those of your competitors. As such, it’s important to choose a trademark that is not only unique and memorable but also available for use.
One way to determine the availability of a trademark is by using the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Trademark API, which provides access to the USPTO’s database of registered trademarks.
What is the USPTO Trademark API?
The USPTO Trademark API is a freemium, publicly available API that allows developers to access data from the USPTO’s database of trademarks. The API provides access to information about registered trademarks, including the mark’s text, owner, and status.
Disclaimer: USPTO office only offers USPTO Open Data Portal, which is not developer friendly, and mostly created for the researchers to create insights.
USPTO Trademark API is available on Rapid API Hub marketplace that providers simple REST endpoints which are developer friendly, and can be easily implemented either on a website, or in your mobile application. This API is handcrafted by a team of developers to complete this industry with new endpoints and make it developer friendly.
Using the USPTO Trademark API, you can search for trademarks by keyword, mark text, or applicant name, and retrieve detailed information about each trademark. This can be useful for businesses considering using a particular trademark, as it can help them determine whether the mark is already in use or registered to someone else.
How to Use the USPTO Trademark API
To use the USPTO Trademark API, you’ll need to obtain an API key from the Rapid API Hub marketplace. The available plans are available here. Once you have your API key, you can begin making requests to the API using REST endpoints.
There are several different endpoints available through the USPTO Trademark API, including:
/v1/trademarkAvailable/{keyword}This endpoint allows you to check for trademark availability by keyword or mark text./v1/trademarkSearch/{keyword}This endpoint allows you to search for trademarks by keyword or mark text./v1/batchTrademarkSearch: {list of keywords}This endpoint allows you to perform a batch keyword search by providing multiple keywords or mark text as input. This call is paginated, and subsequent accesses are cached/free./v1/batchOwnerSearch {owner_searchterm | postcode}This endpoint allows you to perform an owner name search by providing a search term that matches the owner's name, or by providing a postcode that matches the companies in that area./v1/serialSearch/{serial_number}This endpoint allows you to retrieve detailed information about a specific trademark, using the trademark’s serial number.
To make a request to the USPTO Trademark API, you’ll need to use the appropriate endpoint and pass in your API key and any necessary search criteria.
/v1/trademarkAvailable/ Endpoint example
For example, to check for trademark availability of the keyword “amazon”, you might use the following request:
curl --request GET \
- url https://uspto-trademark.p.rapidapi.com/v1/trademarkAvailable/amazon \
- header 'x-rapidapi-host: uspto-trademark.p.rapidapi.com' \
- header 'x-rapidapi-key: <api_key_here>'The API will return a simple answer if the trademark keyword name is taken.
[
{
"keyword": "amazon",
"available": "no"
}
]/v1/trademarkAvailable/ Endpoint example
For example, to search for trademarks containing the keyword “coffee,” you might use the following request
curl --request GET
--url https://uspto-trademark.p.rapidapi.com/v1/trademarkSearch/amazon/active \
--header 'x-rapidapi-host: uspto-trademark.p.rapidapi.com' \
--header 'x-rapidapi-key: <api_key_here>'The API will return a list of trademarks that match your search criteria, along with detailed information about each trademark.
{
"count": 250,
"items": [
{
"keyword": "COFFEE GRIT MAN SOAP",
"registration_number": "6816743",
"serial_number": "97216448",
"status_label": "Live/Registered",
"status_code": "700",
"status_date": "2022-08-09",
"status_definition": "REGISTERED",
"filing_date": "2022-01-12",
"registration_date": "2022-08-09",
"abandonment_date": null,
"expiration_date": "2028-08-09",
"description": "Position 1 Non-medicated soaps for body care; Non-medicated soaps for personal use; Bar soap; Granulated soaps; Non-medicated bar soap\n\nPosition 2 \"SOAP\"\n\n",
"owners": [
{
"index": 1,
"owner_type": "30",
"owner_label": "Original Registrant",
"legal_entity_type": "16",
"legal_entity_type_label": "Limited Liability Company",
"name": "Pure Ponta LLC",
"address1": "300 Flatwoods Forest Loop",
"address2": null,
"city": "Santa Rosa Beach",
"state": "FL",
"country": "US",
"postcode": "32459"
}
]
}
...
]
}Conclusion
The USPTO Trademark API is a valuable tool for businesses that are considering using a particular trademark. By using the API’s REST endpoints, you can easily search for trademarks and determine their availability, helping you to choose a unique and memorable mark for your business. Whether you’re a small business owner, a startup, or a large corporation, the USPTO Trademark API can help you protect your brand and your intellectual property.
Visit article part 1 of USPTO Trademark API — Search trademark & owner database article to see more examples about the search endpoints.
Wrap Up
In the meantime, if you want to check it out, here are some previous articles:
- USPTO Trademark API — Search trademark & owner database — part 1
- Fill in the annual survey for new feedback regarding API.
Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @martonkodok or read my previous posts on medium/@martonkodok
