New comprehensive trademark search capabilities available for pharmaceutical industry

CT Corsearch, part of CT, a Wolters Kluwer business and the premier provider of clearance and protection solutions for trademark and brand professionals, today announced the availability of its new comprehensive trademark search capabilities designed specifically for the specialized needs of the pharmaceutical industry.

Pharmaceutical trademarks are unique in that brands and product names must be cleared with both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Each year, the FDA rejects about one-third of the approximately 400 brand names it reviews.

A trademarked name must be dissimilar to other existing names that could cause confusion, which is standard for trademark clearance, and also avoid consumer confusion by ensuring it is not similar to the name of a pre-existing drug or device in the look, sound when spoken and appearance when written.

The new CT Corsearch pharmaceutical trademark search combines key components in the clearance process that cover both standard trademark clearance and name safety components. The result is a big step forward in pharmaceutical clearance that incorporates the FDA's Phonetic Orthographic Computer Analysis (POCA) and summarizes unwieldy name safety data like Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS), Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) into an easy-to-review summary format and overall, synthesizes name safety into the clearance process.

"Branding is a complex and potentially game-changing task for the pharmaceutical industry, where a particular name can generate millions and even billions of dollars in annual sales," said Stephen Anderson, manager of content development for CT Corsearch.  "Our new pharmaceutical trademark search addresses the two-pronged search capabilities required to help these companies be successful in clearing compelling brand names and identities quickly and effectively, so that they can focus on the task of bringing their products to market."

Key features of CT Corsearch's pharmaceutical search include:

• A jurisdictional overview, summarizing where marks are cited across jurisdictions in chart form;
• Functions to provide users with the ability to view identical marks across all sources searched;
• A summary pharmaceutical information box, showing safety information about a mark;
• Name safety, providing detail from Prescription Drug User Fee Act 4 sources, including: Orange Book, Drugs@FDA, AERS, VAERS, USAN Names and Stems and Pharma In-Use; and
• The industry's first full integration of the FDA's POCA across sources and including POCA rankings.

"The pharmaceutical search adds a wealth of information that flags where there are real potential issues," said Susan Upton Douglass a partner at Fross, Zelnick, Lehrman & Zissu. "It was amazing to see all of these resources brought together in such an organized and useful way. This enhanced search report is really cutting edge, making the other products now obsolete."