Design Search: Find Marks That Look Alike

Design Search finds trademarks by what they look like — their logo, symbol, or design element — instead of by the words in them. This is the right tool when a mark has a picture, a symbol, or stylized artwork that ordinary text search can't capture.

Open Design Search at /design-search (you'll need to be signed in).

When to Use Design Search Instead of Power Search

Power Search and TESS Search match on the text of a mark. Design Search matches on the artwork. Use Design Search when:

• You have a logo or image and want to find marks that look similar
• The mark mixes letters with a symbol — for example "J △ L" (a J and an L with a triangle between them)
• You want every mark that uses a particular design element — a lion, a star, a shield, a triangle

Important: symbols aren't searchable as text

A symbol like a triangle (△), a star, or a shield is not a typeable character — it's a design element. If you type a triangle into Power Search, it's ignored, and the search runs on the surrounding letters only. So for a mark like "J △ L":

1. For the letters, use Power Search: search JL (or J L), then use the Mark Type filter to focus on Combined, Design, or Stylized marks. This catches marks whose wording reads J-L.
2. For the triangle itself, use Design Search. Either describe it in plain English — for example, "The letter J and the letter L with a triangle between them" — pick the triangle's design code (26.05.21), or upload the logo. This is the only way to search the design element.

Running both gives you the complete picture — the same way a USPTO examiner clears a composite mark.

How these marks are filed: A composite letter-plus-symbol mark stores the letters as the wording and the symbol as a design code. Two real examples: USPTO serial 86619759 ("J H" with a black triangle between the letters) and serial 90359686 ("JOL", where a small "o" sits between a large J and L with an upside-down triangle beneath it). In both, the letters are searchable as text in Power Search, while the triangle is recorded as design code 26.05.21 and is only findable through Design Search.

The Four Ways to Search

Design Search leads with one box that accepts three kinds of input, plus a manual lane for precise control.

1. Upload a logo

Drop a logo image into the search box. GleanMark analyzes the artwork and finds marks with visually similar designs, ranked by how close they look.

2. Type a brand name

Type a brand name to pull up design and combined (logo + words) marks whose wording matches. This is a name filter, not a similarity score, so results don't show a match percentage.

3. Type a serial or registration number

Enter a serial or registration number to find marks that look like that specific mark's stored design.

4. Describe it manually

Open Describe it manually for full control:

• Plain-English description — Describe the design, e.g. "A roaring lion's head inside a circular badge, facing left, with a crown above."
• Design codes (optional) — Pick USPTO six-digit design codes (e.g. triangles are in category 26.05). Exact code matches sharpen results.
• Limit to Nice classes (optional) — Narrow to specific international classes (1–45).
• Sensitivity — Choose Strict, Balanced, or Broad to control how close a match has to be.

Then select Search designs.

If you upload a logo, GleanMark auto-fills the description and design codes it detected — open Describe it manually to refine them.

What "Design Codes" Are

USPTO design codes are a standardized index of every visual element a mark can contain, organized as six digits (Category.Division.Section). For example:

• 26.05.xx — Triangles
• 03.01.xx — Cats, lions, tigers
• 01.01.xx — Stars

When you pick a design code, you're searching the same way USPTO examiners do — by the design element, regardless of any wording. The code picker lets you type a plain word (like "lion" or "triangle") or the code itself.

Filters

Once results are showing, the filter rail lets you narrow them:

Filter	What It Does
Status	Registered or Pending
Mark Type	Word, Combined, Stylized, Design
International Classes	Nice classification (1–45)
Owner	Filter to specific owners within results
Design Codes	Filter by the USPTO design codes present in the results
Color	Color claimed vs. no color claim

There's also a Refine by mark, owner, serial… box to filter the on-screen results by text.

What Design Search Can and Can't See

Visual similarity covers design and combined (logo + words) marks — these have a visual fingerprint in GleanMark's index. Standard-character marks and stylized-text marks (words with no separate artwork) don't have a visual fingerprint, so a by-serial visual search on one of those returns no visual matches. For those, search the wording in Power Search instead, or upload the logo image directly.

What's Included in Each Plan

Design Search is available to all signed-in GleanMark users.

Related Features

• Power Search — Search 14M+ marks by name, owner, or goods and services
• TESS Search — USPTO field-code search, including the [dc] design-code field
• Knockout Search — Examiner-style availability check with risk scoring