Trademarks, (cont.)

Scanning for trademark usage.

The are many legal nuances related to trademark use and thus it is generally advisable to work with an information specialist and your attorney to ensure that a trademark search is thorough.  (See Cornell University School of Law Information Institute for additional details). However, the internet can be an  extremely useful resource for performing preliminary scans of trademark usage.  A few quick searches on the internet can help you cost effectively reduce a long list of names to a few more viable options.  Here are a couple of rapid research tips:

• To search the internet for the use of a name, go to the BioTactics Reference Web Search Page. Scroll down to the Fast Searches, a list of web search engines that search multiple engines simultaneously (about 1/2 way down the page). Type your tradename in any one of the text boxes for any of the multi-engine searches (e.g. OnRamp, or  Dogpile) and hit enter.  You'll get a really quick picture of where the word is currently being used over the internet.
• Visit Webtaxi's business database page to search yellow page listings for your trademarks.
• To do a secondary scan, you can do a trademark search on line for $5 at Trademark-search.  
• Fee based search of public information. Go to Knowx Public Information.  Click on "other searches", "Name Availability" to uncover if and where a business name is in use.

Agreement Templates

Sample agreement and legal document templates found online include: Non-disclosure agreement (NDA).  The AUTM (The Association of Technology Managers) web site provides an outstanding selection of sample templates including Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA), Other MTA; License Agreements, Nondisclosure; Sponsored research; Invention Disclosure as well as sample Contract Clauses.   Other sample copies of MTA, patent disclosures, NDA's and basic license agreements can often be found at University Technology Transfer web sites.

Sample copyrights can be found at the US Copyright Office; and Trademarks at the USPTO.   LegalDocs provides some templates for developing legal documents for personal purposes.