How do I police my trademark?

“Policing” your trademark refers to an ongoing process of protecting your rights in your trademark. This includes taking steps to look for infringing uses of confusing or diluting marks. There are professional search firms that can aid in this process (Thomson & Thomson is probably the most well-known of these firms, and its SAEGIS services provides several tools to track trademark usage). For example, these professional firms will prepare watch reports for you, based on your trademark. In preparing these watch reports, the firm will track a variety of databases, as well as the Official Gazette and similar state publications, for any instances of marks similar to or potentially confusing with your mark. If a potentially infringing mark appears in the Official Gazette, this watch report will notify you in time so that you can seek to oppose that mark’s registration.

If an infringing trademark shows up elsewhere in the watch report, you can take the necessary steps to enforce your trademark against that mark’s owner.