Before filing a trademark, you need to know if conflicting marks already exist. GleanMark’s Knockout Search runs the same multi-step analysis a USPTO examining attorney would — phonetic matching, visual similarity, coordinated class checks, and foreign equivalents — and returns risk-scored results in seconds.
What You Can Do
Check a proposed mark against all live federal trademarks (every active pending and registered mark)
See conflicts grouped by risk level (High, Medium, Low) with a summary verdict
Understand exactly how each conflict was found (phonetic, visual, semantic, etc.)
Save searches and revisit them from the Analysis Hub
Copy a link to your search results to share with colleagues
Run a full Clearance Report for attorney-grade analysis
How It Works
Sign in and navigate to Knockout — Click “Knockout” under the Search menu in the sidebar. Knockout requires an account — new users can start at
/knockout-searchto learn about the feature first.Enter your proposed mark — Type the trademark name in the “Enter Your Proposed Mark” field
Select Nice classes — Use the class picker to choose the international classes your goods or services fall under. This focuses the search on commercially relevant conflicts.
Add a goods description (optional) — Describe your goods or services in plain language. This helps GleanMark suggest relevant Nice classes for your search.
Click “Run Examiner Knockout Search” — The search runs multiple examiner-style strategies and returns results once complete.
Review the verdict — The Risk Assessment Summary shows one of three outcomes: High Risk Conflicts Found (significant conflicts detected), Medium Risk Conflicts Found (moderate conflicts worth investigating), or No Significant Conflicts (no meaningful conflicts found)
Examine individual conflicts — Results are grouped into High, Medium, and Low risk sections. Each result shows the conflicting mark name, owner, registration status, Nice classes, how it was discovered (discovery method badges), and a risk level.
Examiner-Style Search Methods
Knockout Search doesn’t just run a text match. It applies multiple examiner-style search strategies, the same approaches a USPTO examining attorney uses when reviewing applications:
Exact Match — Direct word-for-word match against the full trademark database
Phonetic (Double Metaphone) — Finds marks that sound alike, even if spelled differently. “FONE” matches “PHONE”, “KOOL” matches “COOL”
Consonant Skeleton — Strips vowels to find structural similarities. “STRIPES” matches “STRIPS”
Trigram (Visual Similarity) — Character-level comparison catches marks that look alike on paper
Component Intersection — Breaks multi-word marks into parts and checks if all words appear in existing marks
Component + Coordinated Classes — Checks individual words against marks in the same or related product/service classes
Component Phonetic — Runs phonetic matching on each individual word in a multi-word mark
Design Code — Searches design codes for marks with logos or stylized elements
Foreign Equivalents — Applies the Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents — if your mark contains a foreign word, it finds English translations and vice versa
The number of steps that run depends on the mark. Simple single-word marks may skip component-based steps, while multi-word marks with foreign elements run the full suite.
Understanding Risk Levels
Each conflict receives a risk level based on a confusion score that combines mark similarity and commercial overlap:
Risk Level | What It Means |
High | Significant conflict. Strongly consider a different mark or consult an attorney. |
Medium | Moderate similarity. Review the specific goods/services overlap carefully. |
Low | Minimal concern. Mark differences or class distance reduce risk. |
The summary counts how many conflicts fall into each level. Very high similarity marks (near-identical spelling) are always flagged as High risk regardless of class distance.
Tips & Best Practices
Always specify Nice classes — Without them, the search can’t assess commercial overlap, and every phonetically similar mark looks like a conflict
Try variations — If your proposed mark is “BluePeak”, also search “Blue Peak” (two words) and “BLUEPEAK” (one word)
Check the discovery method badges — Each result shows how it was found. A mark found by multiple methods (phonetic + trigram + component) is a stronger conflict than one found by a single method
Use “Run Clearance Search” for important filings — Knockout gives the quick pass/fail. A Clearance Report adds domain availability, web presence, DuPont analysis, and a formal recommendation
What’s Included in Each Plan
Feature | Starter | Professional | Firm |
Knockout searches | 5/month | 25/seat/month | Unlimited |
All search methods | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Save searches | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Clearance Report upgrade | Separate | Included | Included |
Related Features
Markus AI — Ask Markus to run a knockout search conversationally
Setting Up Alerts — Monitor for new filings that conflict with your marks after you’ve filed