Updated October 18, 2026
A trademark watch tells you when someone files a trademark that could be confused with yours, early enough to do something about it.
About 2,000 new trademark applications are filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office every day. The USPTO does not notify you when one looks like yours. An examining attorney does check new applications against existing marks and can refuse a conflicting one. But examiners can miss conflicts, and they only weigh marks already on the register. If you sell under a name you never filed, nobody checks it for you at all.
If a lookalike gets through, it is published in the USPTO's weekly Official Gazette. From that date you have 30 days to oppose it, or to ask for more time. After it registers, the only route is a cancellation proceeding, which is slower and usually more expensive.
A watch compares each new filing with your mark and flags the ones that could cause confusion. That means names that:
A good watch also checks whether the other business sells related goods or services. Two identical names can coexist when one sells software and the other sells cheese.
You probably don't need one if your brand is a placeholder you'd happily change next year.
Watches range from about $39 to over $1,000 a year per mark. The difference is mainly coverage (US only or worldwide) and whether a person reviews the results. See trademark watch prices compared.
Check your brand now. See which new US trademark filings from the last 30 days look like yours. Free, no signup. Then let Namealike check every new filing for you, every day, for $49 a year.
Run the free check See pricing