Best for
Best for applicants and practitioners who want to search the Canadian trademarks register themselves before filing with CIPO.
Trademark Search & Monitoring Comparison
Canadian Trademarks Database 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 | Canadian Trademarks Database | 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 | Result lists of up to 5,000 trademarks in list or grid view, a CSV export of up to 5,000 rows, and trademark details pages that print or save as PDF | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | TSDR API for trademark case status, documents and images, with an API key tied to a USPTO.gov account |
| Hosting | Web app on ised-isde.canada.ca | Web app at tmsearch.uspto.gov |
| Made in | Canada | United States |
| Registers and countries covered | All active and many inactive marks applied for or registered under the current Trademarks Act or former trademark legislation, including all marks cancelled, expunged, abandoned or refused after 1979 and some before; national and international (Madrid Protocol) filings can be shown separately. The database also holds section 9 prohibited and official marks, certification marks, geographical indications and plant breeders' rights denominations | 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 | Basic and advanced searches over 21 fields, with up to 5 criteria combined by AND, OR and NOT, wildcards for one or several characters and quotation marks for exact sequences; filters by category, by type of mark (word, design, sound, colour, 3D, scent, motion and other non-traditional types) and by status group, and figurative searches by Vienna code. The search ignores case and accents | 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 | Nice classification is a search field, with the 45 classes plus class 0 for goods or services not classed, and goods and services can also be searched as text | 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: CIPO recommends also searching phonetic equivalents, synonyms and translations into English or French, and consulting a trademark agent or an experienced trademark searcher when a thorough search or an interpretation of the results is required | 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 | Not stated | 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 | Results export as a CSV file of up to 5,000 rows and print from the browser; each trademark's details page can be printed, saved as PDF or shared, and links to its Trademarks Office and Trademarks Opposition Board documents in the Trademarks Document Retrieval Service | 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 | CIPO publishes trademarks researcher datasets as CSV and TXT tables with quarterly updates, trademark records as individual XML files paired with their images, and bulk data that can be ordered. The search itself is not intended for bulk downloads, and CIPO says clients generating 1,000 or more daily accesses may be denied access | 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 Canadian Trademarks Database Web app on ised-isde.canada.ca USPTO Trademark Search Web app at tmsearch.uspto.gov
- Made in Canadian Trademarks Database Canada USPTO Trademark Search United States
- Registers and countries covered Canadian Trademarks Database All active and many inactive marks applied for or registered under the current Trademarks Act or former trademark legislation, including all marks cancelled, expunged, abandoned or refused after 1979 and some before; national and international (Madrid Protocol) filings can be shown separately. The database also holds section 9 prohibited and official marks, certification marks, geographical indications and plant breeders' rights denominations 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 Canadian Trademarks Database Basic and advanced searches over 21 fields, with up to 5 criteria combined by AND, OR and NOT, wildcards for one or several characters and quotation marks for exact sequences; filters by category, by type of mark (word, design, sound, colour, 3D, scent, motion and other non-traditional types) and by status group, and figurative searches by Vienna code. The search ignores case and accents 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
- Goods, services and Nice classes Canadian Trademarks Database Nice classification is a search field, with the 45 classes plus class 0 for goods or services not classed, and goods and services can also be searched as text USPTO Trademark Search 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
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Canadian Trademarks Database
Strengths
- Run by CIPO, with the database updated every Wednesday
- Includes non-traditional marks such as sound, scent, hologram and motion since June 2019
- Result sets of up to 5,000 rows export as CSV
- Researcher datasets and XML records for analysis outside the search
Limitations
- Covers the Canadian register only; other countries need other databases
- The help pages describe no phonetic or similarity search mode, so variants have to be entered one by one
- The official pages describe no watch or email alerts for new filings
- CIPO does not warrant the accuracy of the data, and recent changes may not be included
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
Canadian Trademarks Database
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
Canadian Trademarks Database
- 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
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.
What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Canadian Trademarks Database https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/trademarks/introduction-canadian-trademarks-database · checked against the official source on 2026-11-10
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.