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2 April 2019Trademarks

WIPO unveils AI-powered trademark search tool

The  World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered image search engine to make it faster and easier for brands to establish the distinctiveness of a trademark.

In  an announcement yesterday, April 1, WIPO said the new technology will improve on previous tools because it will identify combinations of concepts within an image to find similar marks that have previously been registered.

The current search tools primarily determine trademark image similarity by identifying shapes and colours.

WIPO said the new technology results in a “narrower and more precise” group of potentially similar marks.

“With fewer results to scrutinise, this translates into labour-cost savings for trademark examiners, attorneys and paralegals, industry practitioners and researchers,'' WIPO said.

WIPO said all users can access the AI search technology for free through WIPO’s Global Brand Database, where it has been fully integrated into the database’s search engine.

Director general of WIPO,  Francis Gurry, said a “larger data pool means better results”, and encouraged trademark offices whose collections are not included in the database to consider adding them as soon as possible.

“Our state-of-the-art AI technology is a major improvement that will create greater certainty for the development of new image marks and greater ease for monitoring potentially misleading or conflicting new registrations,” he added.

According to WIPO, the new search tool covers the national collections of 45 trademark offices. This currently represents almost 38 million trademarks.

The AI image similarity algorithm also allows users to customise search criteria, for example restricting to results list to a given set of jurisdictions.

WIPO said users submitting a complex image can further narrow search results by using the in-built editing tool to close crop an area of interest.

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