Best for
Best for applicants and practitioners who want to search the Australian trade mark register themselves before filing with IP Australia.
Trademark Search & Monitoring Comparison
Australian Trade Mark Search vs. USPTO Trademark Search
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for applicants and practitioners who want to search the US federal trademark register themselves before filing with the USPTO.
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Australian Trade Mark Search | USPTO Trademark Search |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Not stated | Free The USPTO describes its search resources as free. A free USPTO.gov account is needed for the beta image search and custom case summaries, and for an API key. |
| Output | Lists of matching trade marks with full record details, an Excel export of up to 2,000 results, print-friendly pages and PDF reports | Not stated |
| API | Australian Trade Mark Search API with a quick search and a lookup by trade mark number, using OAuth 2.0 client credentials | TSDR API for trademark case status, documents and images, with an API key tied to a USPTO.gov account |
| Hosting | Web app at search.ipaustralia.gov.au | Web app at tmsearch.uspto.gov |
| Made in | Australia | United States |
| Registers and countries covered | Registered and pending Australian trade marks, including trade marks registered with the International Bureau designating Australia, which are found by their international registration number | Federally registered and pending US trademarks in the USPTO database. For a comprehensive clearance the USPTO lists further sources outside the tool: the Trademark Official Gazette, state trademark and business registries, domain name registries, Madrid Monitor, WIPO's Global Brand Database and EUIPO's TMview. |
| Word, phonetic and image search | Word searches with exact, prefix, suffix, part, stem, fuzzy and phonetic options, phrases with AND, OR, NOT, quotes and wildcards, image search by visual similarity from an uploaded PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP or SVG up to 8 MB, advanced image search with standard image constituent terms, and searches by number or range, owner, party, address for service, goods and services text, status, dates, type and flags such as non-use | Word searches by field tag such as CM for the combined mark, with exact phrases in quotes and regular expressions for alternative spellings and pronunciations, design search codes from the Design Search Code Manual, design searches by textual description, and a beta image search from an uploaded image for logged-in users |
| Goods, services and Nice classes | Searches across the 45 classes, with associated classes included by default; choosing Single limits the search to the classes entered | A coordinated class filter in expert mode and the CC field tag find marks in related international and US classes, and the Trademark ID Manual lists acceptable goods and services wording |
| Clearance and conflict screening | A search of the register and not a clearance opinion: IP Australia says a trade marks attorney or lawyer can undertake comprehensive searches for prior registered or unregistered trade marks, and offers a separate free app, TM Checker, for feedback on the likely success of an application | A search tool and not a screening: the USPTO calls its database one essential step of a clearance search, says there is no surefire way to uncover all potentially conflicting trademarks, and suggests a trademark screening service or a US-licensed attorney for an in-depth search |
| Watch and alerts | Saved searches in My Searches and in search spaces do not refresh on their own: IP Australia states their results only update when the searches are rerun, with a Rerun all searches button; search spaces are kept for 100 days after last access | Status alerts come from separate USPTO services: MyUSPTO can send email updates when the status of an application changes, and Trademark Center has a docketing feature that tracks the status of applications filed through it |
| Reports and exports | Result sets of up to 2,000 export as a Microsoft Excel document, results print as a plain print-friendly page, and the advanced view generates PDF reports; searches run in the advanced view are kept in a My Searches list | Logged-in users can choose which sections appear on a case summary for a record and print or save it; a result opens most of the TSDR information without leaving the search system |
| Integrations and API | Australian Trade Mark Search API with a quick search endpoint returning matching trade mark numbers, filterable by type, status and update date, and an endpoint returning the publicly available details of one trade mark; access is requested through the IP Australia developer portal and uses OAuth 2.0 client credentials | TSDR API for programmatic requests for trademark case status, documents and images, requiring an API key tied to a USPTO.gov account; trademark bulk data is downloadable from the USPTO Bulk Data Storage System and further data products sit on the USPTO Open Data Portal |
| Deployment | Browser-based | Browser-based |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Live online demos and webinars |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Hosting Australian Trade Mark Search Web app at search.ipaustralia.gov.au USPTO Trademark Search Web app at tmsearch.uspto.gov
- Made in Australian Trade Mark Search Australia USPTO Trademark Search United States
- API Australian Trade Mark Search Australian Trade Mark Search API with a quick search and a lookup by trade mark number, using OAuth 2.0 client credentials USPTO Trademark Search TSDR API for trademark case status, documents and images, with an API key tied to a USPTO.gov account
- Registers and countries covered Australian Trade Mark Search Registered and pending Australian trade marks, including trade marks registered with the International Bureau designating Australia, which are found by their international registration number USPTO Trademark Search Federally registered and pending US trademarks in the USPTO database. For a comprehensive clearance the USPTO lists further sources outside the tool: the Trademark Official Gazette, state trademark and business registries, domain name registries, Madrid Monitor, WIPO's Global Brand Database and EUIPO's TMview.
- Word, phonetic and image search Australian Trade Mark Search Word searches with exact, prefix, suffix, part, stem, fuzzy and phonetic options, phrases with AND, OR, NOT, quotes and wildcards, image search by visual similarity from an uploaded PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP or SVG up to 8 MB, advanced image search with standard image constituent terms, and searches by number or range, owner, party, address for service, goods and services text, status, dates, type and flags such as non-use USPTO Trademark Search Word searches by field tag such as CM for the combined mark, with exact phrases in quotes and regular expressions for alternative spellings and pronunciations, design search codes from the Design Search Code Manual, design searches by textual description, and a beta image search from an uploaded image for logged-in users
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Australian Trade Mark Search
Strengths
- From IP Australia, the office that examines Australian applications
- Phonetic, fuzzy and stem word searches for spelling and sound variants
- Image search by visual similarity from an uploaded logo
- Excel export of up to 2,000 results and a documented search API
Limitations
- Covers the Australian register only; other countries need other databases
- The official pages describe no watch or email alerts for new filings
- The image search does not read words inside an image, so they have to be typed separately
USPTO Trademark Search
Strengths
- Free, from the office that examines US federal applications
- Field tags and regular expressions for spelling and pronunciation variants
- Coordinated class filter for related goods and services across classes
- TSDR API and bulk data for trademark records
Limitations
- Covers the federal register only; state, common-law and foreign marks need other sources
- Image search is a beta for logged-in users, and the design search codes page still states the system does not allow reverse image searching
- Field tag syntax takes practice; the USPTO publishes separate handouts and webinars for it
Plans
Pricing
Australian Trade Mark Search
Price on Request
Visit siteUSPTO Trademark Search
- Free Free Public search of the USPTO; a free USPTO.gov account adds the beta image search, custom case summaries and an API key.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Australian Trade Mark Search
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
USPTO Trademark Search
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Australian Trade Mark Search https://ipaustralia.gov.au/trade-marks/search-existing-trade-marks · checked against the official source on 2026-11-08
USPTO Trademark Search https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search · checked against the official source on 2026-11-07
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.