| Guide | GDE-088 |
| Topic | Trademark ownership search |
| Domain | Corporate intelligence |
| Last tested | 1 November 2026 |
Short answer: Run a trademark search in the register where the brand trades, such as the USPTO, UK IPO or TMview, then read the owner and representative on the record. A registered owner is not always the business behind the brand, so confirm it in company records.
What is a trademark search?
A trademark search is a lookup in an official trade mark register, such as the USPTO, UK IPO or EU databases, that shows who applied for or owns a brand name or logo, where they are based and which goods it covers. For investigators, it ties a product, website or online shop to a named legal owner and a dated paper trail.
Trademark registers are public by design: anyone can check whether a name is taken, so offices publish the owner's name, an address and the history of each filing. A brand on a shop front, an app or a crowdfunding page often has an owner who never appears on the product itself.
The register can name that owner, link it to sister brands filed by the same entity and show the lawyers who act for it. In the US, the record also holds the application documents, and the USPTO states that all email addresses submitted become part of the public record.
| • | Identifying the company or person behind a brand, app or online shop |
| • | Linking a set of brands to one owner through shared applicant details |
| • | Checking whether a claim to own a brand name holds up on the register |
| • | Tracing when a brand changed hands through recorded assignments |
| • | Finding addresses, representatives and contact emails to pivot into company records |
How do you run a trademark search to find a brand's owner?
Search the register where the brand trades, read the full record and its documents, then pivot from the owner details into company records.
Six public registers and databases cover most trademark searches.
USPTO Trademark Search: The US federal register's search system, which replaced TESS on 30 November 2023. The USPTO recommends signing in to a USPTO.gov account for a better search experience, and its beta image search asks you to sign in.
TSDR: Trademark Status and Document Retrieval shows the official record for a US mark, including owner and attorney details, plus a Documents tab with the case file.
USPTO Assignment Center: Lists recorded assignments and other ownership changes for US marks.
UK IPO trade mark search: Searches the UK register by number, owner name, words or image.
TMview: EUIPO describes it as free to search. EUIPO's 2025 anniversary notice gave more than 136 million trade marks from 80 countries, so one query sweeps many registers at once.
WIPO Global Brand Database: Free, no registration. Covers international registrations under the Madrid System plus national and regional collections, and accepts an uploaded image to find visually similar marks.
What we tested: On 1 November 2026 we ran one live search in each of USPTO Trademark Search, TSDR, USPTO Assignment Center, TMview and WIPO Global Brand Database, using a famous brand name and its corporate owner as public test inputs. No private person's record was opened, and all five returned results with no login. The UK IPO trade mark search was not tested because it showed a security check before any search form, and we did not try to complete it. None of the six was found discontinued or changed in a way that breaks this method.
A wordmark search for Coca-Cola ran with no login and returned 1,332 results, 238 live and 1,094 dead, each showing status, class, serial number and owner. The page offers a Sign in link but did not require it. | ||
A serial number lookup for a Coca-Cola record loaded the status page with no sign-in, showing the mark, serial and registration numbers, filing and registration dates and status, with Status, Documents and Maintenance tabs. A notice on the page says technical adjustments were made to limit excessive data mining. | ||
An assignee name search for The Coca-Cola Company ran in the public view with no sign-in and returned 310 results, listed with serial and registration numbers. The page still offers a Sign in link. | ||
Search not run. The search page showed a security check about automated traffic before any search form loaded, and we did not try to complete it. The GOV.UK page offers search by trade mark number, by owner and by keyword, phrase or image. It does not state cost or login. | ||
A name search for Coca-Cola ran with no login and returned 32,512 results, with columns for trade mark office, application number and applicant name, and an office filter listing 81 offices. Optional Sign in and Register links appear on the page. | ||
A brand name search for Coca-Cola ran with no login and returned 15,366 results, each showing owner, country or region of filing, status and number. The page says it covers 77,165,498 records from 89 data sources and offers an optional IP Portal login. Image search was not run. |
Sample: one search in each of five tools, none in the UK IPO tool, all using the same brand name on one day. Result counts depend on the brand and the date, so read them as a snapshot, not a benchmark.
The Owner-Field Rule: Name as the owner only the party in the owner or applicant field, never the attorney or correspondence field. Match its name, registration number and address against a company record before you call it the controller.