Creative Trademark Services has conducted thousands of comprehensive trademark clearance searches for law firms, attorneys, and individuals since 1997. Every Federal and State search uses Clarivate/Thomson Reuters trademark data, the recognized industry standard for defensible clearance work. A full comprehensive search costs $425, compared to $1,000 or more when ordering the same data from institutional vendors. Use the navigation below to jump directly to any question.

For Attorneys and Law Firms

  1. What is the difference between using Creative Trademark Services and going directly to Clarivate/Thomson Reuters?
  2. Who actually creates the search strategy for my client’s trademark search?
  3. Can I outsource all of my firm’s trademark clearance searches to a third-party firm?
  4. What does a comprehensive trademark clearance search include?
  5. What is your turnaround time, and do you offer rush service?
  6. What data sources does Creative Trademark Services use?
  7. What should I look for when evaluating a trademark search vendor?
  8. Is it worth outsourcing trademark searches, or should my firm handle them in-house?
  9. I am not an IP attorney, but my client needs a trademark search. Can you help me?
  10. What does the search report look like, and can I share it directly with my client?

General Trademark Search Questions

  1. What are your credentials?
  2. Where do you acquire your data?
  3. How can you charge so much less and still do top quality work?
  4. What is the end product you provide to me?
  5. Do you only check for exact matches, or do you also check variations?
  6. Do you check all classes when conducting a search, or just the class of my proposed mark?
  7. When conducting a state search, do you research all states or just the state in which I am doing business?
  8. I need a logo, design, or trademark image search. Can you help?
  9. What is your turnaround time?
  10. Do you have any free trademark search information that can help me?

For Attorneys and Law Firms

What is the difference between using Creative Trademark Services and going directly to Clarivate/Thomson Reuters?

The most meaningful difference is not the data, it is the expertise applied to it and the price you pay for it.

Creative Trademark Services purchases its Federal and State trademark data directly from Clarivate/Thomson Reuters, the same source the large search companies use. The difference is what happens after the data is pulled. At Creative Trademark Services, every search strategy is created and reviewed by staff with 25+ years of experience in trademark search. When you order through a large institutional vendor, the experience level of the individual handling your matter is unknown and variable, there is no guarantee that the person building your search strategy has deep expertise in this specific field.

On price, a full comprehensive search through Creative Trademark Services costs $425 and covers the industry standard databases and more. This includes Federal, all 50 State, Common Law, Domain, and Social Media. Ordering an equivalent search directly from Clarivate/Thomson Reuters typically costs $1,000 or more. The data is identical. The difference is the overhead structure of a large publicly traded company versus a firm that has operated lean and focused since 1997.

One additional point worth noting: Creative Trademark Services actively monitors search technology rather than accepting vendor claims at face value. When we identified that a major vendor’s image search technology was not performing as advertised, we confronted them directly with our findings. The vendor confirmed the error and corrected it. That kind of accountability does not happen when you are simply a line item in a large institution’s order queue.

Who actually creates the search strategy for my client’s trademark search?

At Creative Trademark Services, every search strategy is built by experienced staff who have been doing this work since the firm’s founding in 1997. Both the search manager and the office manager have been with the firm for over 25 years. There is no junior staff creating your search strategy, the people who built the firm’s reputation are the same ones reviewing your search today.

This matters in practice. Trademark search strategy requires judgment: knowing which phonetic variants are worth pursuing, which truncations create real risk, which Common Law results are noise versus meaningful conflict. That judgment comes from experience, and experience is not something a large vendor can guarantee on any given order.

Can I outsource all of my firm’s trademark clearance searches to a third-party firm?

Yes, and many law firms do exactly this. Think of it as having a trademark search specialist with 25+ years of experience available to your firm whenever a client needs one, without the overhead of keeping that expertise on staff full-time.

The division of responsibility is clean. Creative Trademark Services provides the research: Federal, State, Common Law, Domain, and Social Media records organized into a structured report. The legal analysis, the risk assessment, and the opinion letter remain entirely the attorney’s work. CTS does not practice law and does not issue opinions. The search is the raw material; the legal judgment is yours.

Creative Trademark Services has served as the primary trademark search provider for hundreds of law firms since 1997, including solo practitioners, general practice firms, and dedicated IP practices. Using our services is like hiring an IP expert with over 25 years of experience and only using them when you need them, no subscription, no training requirement, no expertise drift when search volume is low.

What does a comprehensive trademark clearance search include?

A full comprehensive search from Creative Trademark Services covers five databases: Federal (USPTO), all 50 State trademark databases, Common Law, Domain Names, and Social Media.

Federal and State records are sourced directly from Clarivate/Thomson Reuters and include all currently registered, pending, abandoned, canceled, and expired marks. Common Law searching draws from a combined database of over 100 million entries including public and private company databases, brand and product databases, trade publications, and a full web search across major search engines. Domain Name searches are conducted through Network Solutions across seven major extensions. Social Media searches cover more than 100 platforms.

Every search includes phonetic variants, truncations, spelling differences, homonyms, and language translations of the proposed mark as standard. The report is delivered in PDF and/or Word format and includes a summary letter. The data sources are the same ones your IP colleagues rely on, at a fraction of the cost of ordering directly from Clarivate/Thomson Reuters.

What is your turnaround time, and do you offer rush service?

Standard turnaround for a full comprehensive trademark search is 3-5 business days, with the majority of searches delivered in 3-4. Turnaround depends on current volume.

Rush service is available at an additional charge of $150, with 24-hour turnaround from the time the order is confirmed. Because rush availability depends on current production capacity, it requires a phone or email confirmation before the order is placed. Call 201-825-1060 or email info@creativetrademark.com to confirm before submitting a rush order, the additional fee is added to your order after availability is confirmed.

For attorneys working against a filing deadline or a client’s transaction timeline, the 24-hour option exists precisely for those situations. CTS recommends confirming rush availability before advising your client on timing.

What data sources does Creative Trademark Services use?

Creative Trademark Services has used Clarivate/Thomson Reuters data for every Federal and State trademark search conducted since the firm’s founding in 1997. This is the same data source used by the major institutional trademark search vendors, and the same data source attorneys require for defensible clearance work.

For Common Law coverage, CTS searches public and private company databases, brand and product databases, trade publications, and conducts a full web search across major search engines, a combined pool of over 100 million entries. Domain Name searches are conducted through Network Solutions across seven major extensions. Social Media searches cover more than 100 platforms.

What should I look for when evaluating a trademark search vendor?

Three factors separate reliable trademark search vendors from unreliable ones: data sourcing, search strategy expertise, and accountability.

On data sourcing: does the vendor use Clarivate/Thomson Reuters data for Federal and State records? This is the industry standard that attorneys and courts recognize. Vendors using secondary aggregators or self-assembled databases introduce uncertainty into results that a Clarivate/Thomson Reuters-sourced search would not have.

On expertise: who actually builds the search strategy? Is it a specialist with years of experience in trademark search specifically, or is it a generalist following a template? Ask directly. The answer matters for edge cases, and edge cases are exactly where missed marks create malpractice exposure.

On accountability: can you reach a person who can explain the results, discuss a specific record, or walk through why a particular variant was or was not flagged? A vendor who is unreachable after delivery is a vendor you cannot rely on when a client question arises.

Price matters, but it is downstream of these three. A search built on inferior data or insufficient expertise is not a bargain at any price.

Is it worth outsourcing trademark searches, or should my firm handle them in-house?

For firms without a dedicated trademark practice, outsourcing is typically more defensible and cost-effective than in-house searching.

Maintaining in-house comprehensive search capability requires an ongoing Clarivate/Thomson Reuters subscription (a significant annual expense), staff training, and sufficient search volume to keep expertise sharp. The real risk of handling searches in-house infrequently is expertise drift: staff lose proficiency between searches, search strategy becomes inconsistent, and the likelihood of a missed mark increases. A missed mark that surfaces after a client has invested in their brand, marketing, domain names, business identity, creates a costly problem that reliable outsourced research directly prevents.

Outsourcing to a specialist firm eliminates the subscription overhead, removes the training burden, and ensures that every search is handled by staff who perform this work every day. For non-IP-focused practices, the math and the risk profile both favor outsourcing.

I am not an IP attorney, but my client needs a trademark search. Can you help me?

Yes, this is the most common situation Creative Trademark Services works with. A client is starting a company, picking a brand name, building a website, launching a product, or protecting creative work. They need to know whether the name or mark they are considering creates any legal exposure before they invest in it. You do not need to be an IP specialist to handle this for your client, you need a reliable research partner.

CTS provides the research. You apply the legal judgment to the results. A full comprehensive search costs $425. If you need help understanding what the results mean in a specific situation, CTS staff will walk you through the report.

What does the search report look like, and can I share it directly with my client?

The report is delivered as a PDF and/or Word document, organized by search category: Federal, State, and Common Law results, each listed alphabetically. Each result includes the full mark, owner, class, registration status, and registration number. Wild card search results are included as standard. A summary letter is included with every report.

The report is designed to be shared directly with clients. Many attorneys forward it as-is with their own cover letter or analysis. A sample trademark search report is available here if you want to review the format before ordering.

General Trademark Search Questions

What are your credentials?

Creative Trademark Services has been searching trademarks since 1997. Both our office manager and trademark search manager have 25+ years of experience in the field and personally create the search strategy for every search we conduct, not a template, not a junior staffer, not an algorithm.

The testimonials displayed throughout this site include some of the top IP firms in the country. We think the most honest credential we can offer is what our clients say about us after working with us.

Where do you acquire your data?

Creative Trademark Services uses Clarivate/Thomson Reuters subscription data for all Federal and State trademark searches, the same source attorneys require and the same source the large institutional search firms use. We have used this data for every search conducted since 1997. Attorneys will only accept Federal and State results from Clarivate/Thomson Reuters because it is the recognized standard for defensible clearance work.

How can you charge so much less and still do top quality work?

We purchase our Federal and State data from Clarivate/Thomson Reuters, the same source they use. The difference is what we do not have: brick-and-mortar operations, multiple layers of management, and shareholder obligations that require a large margin on every transaction.

Creative Trademark Services was among the first trademark research firms on the internet. We launched in 1997 and built an operation that was efficient from the start, a privately held, distributed company with a flat organizational structure. We have streamlined the trademark search process and pass those savings directly to clients. Think of us as a wholesale trademark research company.

We use the same Clarivate/Thomson Reuters Federal and State data. Every search strategy is created by someone with 25+ years of experience. Our customer service is accessible and responsive. The one thing we do not provide is a printed report in a plastic cover. Otherwise, we do not see a meaningful difference, except that we charge hundreds of dollars less.

What is the end product you provide to me?

You will receive a full trademark search report delivered via email in PDF and/or Word format. The report is broken down into Federal, State, and Common Law sections in alphabetical order and includes all currently registered, pending, abandoned, canceled, and expired trademarks and service marks, both identical and similar to your proposed mark.

We conduct wild card searches as standard: not just your exact mark, but variations. All marks found similar to your proposed mark are investigated so we can supply you with full details: owner of mark, status, goods and services, registration number, date of registration, and contact address. A summary letter explaining the basic results is included with every report.

You can download a PDF copy of our sample search here. For more information, visit our Services page or read our guide on how to read your trademark search report.

We research not only your exact mark but also variations, similarities, truncations, homonyms, spelling differences, and language translations of your proposed mark. All of these can create potential conflicts and are included in every search as standard.

Do you check all classes when conducting a search, or just the class of my proposed mark?

We conduct searches in all classes and categories, not just the class of your proposed mark. We do ask for a description of how you plan to use your mark, this allows us to build a more focused and useful report, but you will always receive all results for any exact or close match regardless of class.

When conducting a state search, do you research all states or just the state in which I am doing business?

Our searches are conducted in all 50 US states and Puerto Rico, not just the state where your proposed mark will be used. A conflicting mark registered in another state can still create problems, and a thorough clearance search requires national coverage.

Full logo and design searches are significantly more complex than text-based trademark searches. They are conducted by searching USPTO design codes rather than text, and they are expensive, often costing thousands of dollars. Image recognition technology exists for this purpose, but we have not found any current solution accurate enough to sell to our clients with confidence.

What we can provide is “associated images”, when you order a Full Comprehensive or Federal search, we include any images that have been filed with the records we retrieve from the Federal USPTO database. This is not a search initiated by your image; it is the images associated with the marks our text search finds. For many clients who are primarily concerned with avoiding conflicts on the name itself (rather than a highly distinctive design element), the associated images add-on is a practical and affordable option. It can be added to your order at checkout.

For clients whose design element is distinctive enough to warrant full image protection, a comprehensive design search is the right choice. We recommend consulting with your attorney before deciding which approach fits your situation.

What is your turnaround time?

Standard turnaround is 3-5 business days, with the majority of searches delivered in 3-4 days. Turnaround depends on current volume.

Rush service is available at an additional charge of $150, with 24-hour turnaround from the time the order is confirmed. Rush availability depends on current production capacity, call 201-825-1060 or email info@creativetrademark.com to confirm before placing a rush order. If we have the production time available, the additional fee will be added to your order after confirmation.

Do you have any free trademark search information that can help me?

Yes, we have a full page of free trademark resources available to help you understand the search process before you spend anything. Head over to our Free Trademark Information section, which includes plain-English guides on how to read a trademark search report, what the USPTO’s TESS database is and why it is not sufficient on its own, and other explainers written for both business owners and attorneys.

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