Find out whether your trade mark is already being used or has been registered as a company or domain name by someone else. To do this, you can search free websites:

• via internet search engines
• in Swissreg for Swiss trade marks and internationally registered trade marks with protective effect in Switzerland
• in the Madrid Monitor database for internationally registered trade marks
• in TMview for trade marks registered in the EU and many other countries 
• in the Central Business Names Index for companies registered in Switzerland 
• in SWITCH for domain names.

Be careful with images as they are difficult to search for in online databases and on the internet. It's therefore advisable to get a professional to carry out an image search for you.

If so, you should check whether there are any potential conflicts between the signs. You can find information about this in our two leaflets:

• Which sign has priority in the event of a conflict? (in German, French or Italian) 
• Risk of confusion: yes or no? (in German, French or Italian)  

Then make sure that there aren't any trade marks that are similar to yours as your trade mark could also conflict with similar trade marks.

Below are some examples of similar trade marks where the existence of a conflict was confirmed in court:

• Alcon against Alicon
• Blackberry against Blueberry
• Stoko against Toggo
• Kimbo against Bimbo
• Pectan against Spectane

As it's almost impossible to carry out a comprehensive search for similar trade marks on free websites, you should have a professional search carried out. Private search service providers can do this for you.