It
is recommended that before submitting an application for the registration of a
trademark, a trademark search is carried out in the National Trademark Register, so as to check
whether there are any prior registrations or applications with which your
application may conflict.
Alternatively,
if you would like the office to carry out the search on your behalf please send
an e-mail on ipoffice@gov.mt indicating the mark to be
searched and the goods or services to be covered by the mark. The cost of the
search is € 11.65 per 3 words or 3 figurative elements searched for each class
of goods or services.
It
is recommended that before submitting an application for the granting of a
patent, a patent search is carried out in the National Patent Register, so as to
ensure that your invention is new and original.
Alternatively,
if you would like the office to carry out the search on your behalf please send
an e-mail on ipoffice@gov.mt. The
cost of the search is € 11.65 per patent.
Similarly
it is also possible to carry out a search for designs already applied for and
registered with this office as well as other EU national IP offices and other
offices in countries outside the EU by clicking on DesignView at www.tmdn.org.
DesignView is also accessible on the IP portal at http://ips.gov.mt.
Trademark
Search Request
This Office
offers the services of trademark searches on the National as well as the
European Community Database.
The service
is carried out at the request of the client who may send the details of the
search request by post or email on ipoffice@gov.mt
For your
information please also note that the applicable search fees are as follows:
- Word Search: €10.00 for every three (3) words
per mark, in each class
- Figurative Element Search: €10.00 for every
three (3) Vienna Codes per mark, in each class
- €1.00 (uncertified) or €2.00 (certified) per
extract from the National or EUTM register
An
electronic search for trademark information may be undertaken online by
visiting www.ips.gov.mt and
clicking on the Search the National Register in the Trademark section.
Alternatively,
an email request for the Office to undertake a Search on your behalf may
be submitted to the Commerce Department by using the email address: ipoffice@gov.mt
The
Office's Search Reports do not constitute a guarantee that the searched marks
would be registered if an application for registration is submitted. The
pre-application search procedure excludes the examination of marks on absolute
grounds for refusal and searches in the European Community Trademarks
register. It is further pointed out that although the searches are
carried out scrupulously and attentively, responsibility for any omission,
oversight, inaccuracy, or mistake whatsoever is disclaimed by the Office.
Representations
of National Trademarks, apart from being available online, are open to public
inspection at this Office in terms of law and may be inspected by all those
interested. European Union Trademarks are searchable directly
from here.
Pharmaceutical
Patents Directory
In
2009, the Commerce Department entered into a joint initiative with Malta
Enterprise, who in turn commissioned Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates, to compile the
contents of a Pharmaceutical Patents Directory covering the last 20 years of
such registrations in Malta, which has continued being updated on a monthly
basis by the Department and which may be viewed by clicking here.
General
Patents Directory
The
Commerce Department has separately compiled a General Patents Directory
covering the last 20 years of all Patent registrations in Malta, which is also
updated on a monthly basis and which may also be viewed here.
European
Patents
t is the European Patent
Organisation’s (EPO's) database of ideas, offering free access to over 60
million Patent documents from all over the world, representing technical
developments dating back to 1836. This service can be used to watch new
technologies emerge, to find solutions to technical problems and to discover
what competitors are developing.
United
States Patents
Google
Patents is a service offering over 7 million Patents issued in
the United States by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and
which are readily available online.
European
Union Trademarks and Designs
A
range of search tools are available on the European Union Intellectual
Property's (EUIPO's) website allowing a fast and user-friendly lookup
of European Union Trademarks (EU TMs) and Registered
Community Designs (RCDs), providing information about
classifications or help in the search for representatives.
This
site also provides access to all non-confidential correspondence exchanged
between EUIPO and the EU TM owner and/or their representative via the
Online Access to EU TM Files service – available by clicking EUIPO Databases.
TMview
is a new Search service designed to simultaneously search, free of charge, the
databases of existing Trademarks held by the national collaborating offices
which you are kindly invited to visit through the link provided below:
Go now to TMview!
Intellectual
Property Digital Library
The
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) provides online access to the
following data collections:
WIPO’s
Patentscope provides access to over one million published Patent Cooperation
Treaty (PCT) applications and to the latest bibliographic data and documents
contained in the files of PCT international applications. Click on the
following link: PATENTSCOPE®
WIPO’s
Madrid Express database includes all international registrations that are
currently in force, available in full Latin script from 1978 onwards, including
those that have expired within the past six months. It also includes data
relating to international applications and subsequent designations that have
been received by WIPO but have not yet been recorded in the international
register of marks.
Click
on the following link: Madrid System for the International
Registration of Marks
WIPO’s
Hague Express Database includes bibliographical data and, as far as
international registrations governed exclusively or partly by the 1999 and/or
by the 1960 Act(s) of the Hague Agreement are concerned, reproductions of
Industrial Designs relating to international registrations that have been
recorded in the International Register and published in the International
Designs Bulletin as of issue No. 1/1999.
Click
on the following link: Hague System for the International Registration of
Industrial Designs
WIPO’s
Article 6ter Express database includes all communications made so far under
Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
(Paris Convention) by States and international intergovernmental organisations
– for the protection of State Emblems, Official Hallmarks and Emblems of
Intergovernmental Organisations. It is updated as soon as a new request
for communication is sent to the States party to the Paris Convention and to
the Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Click
on the following link: Article 6ter of the Paris
Convention
WIPO
also has a database with information on all the Appellations of Origin entered,
in accordance with the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of
Origin and their International Registration, in the international register and
which are in force. For the convenience of users, the products covered by
the appellations of origin registered under the Lisbon Agreement are classified
in accordance with the International (Nice) Classification of Goods and
Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks. Click on the
following link: Lisbon
System for the International Registration of Appellations of Origin
National
IP Databases
While the above search tools are designed mainly
for international and regional searches, most of the large national IP offices
also offer direct online searching of their national IP databases. A list
of the larger national offices providing searching tools in the English
language may be found by visiting this Portal’s IP Links section.