How Trademark Lawyers Can Be Savvy with Social Media
Staying on top of your clients’ marks is important as a trademark lawyer – which is exactly why we created Name Warden! Name Warden does the admin work of trademark tracking. Name Warden figures out and keeps track of deadlines for you, and the monitoring side gives you much earlier and more complete insight.
When another company or brand files a USPTO application that may violate your trademark, you want to know right away. Name Warden monitors filings with the USPTO very early in the application process, and allows trademark owners to flag and track any worrisome applications to see whether and when they move through the application process toward registration.
But what if a similar brand is out there, and the owners don’t apply to register that mark? How can you catch trademark violators who may be under the radar? We suggest using social media!
Social Media Monitoring Tools 
There are dozens of monitoring tools out there with fancy features and dashboards. These tools are a great way to keep an eye on mentions of your trademark without having to do much work. Enter the keywords, phrases, or hashtags you want, and get notified when someone uses them. For larger clients, these tools can help you stay on top. Here are a few to check out:
Awario – Awario monitors “all corners of the web” for mentions of the keywords you’re interested in. The pricing is based on how many “alerts” you need.
Mention – Mention monitors social media channels for mentions of your keywords. The pricing is based on number of users and the number of keywords you want to monitor.
Hootsuite – Hootsuite allows you to monitor unlimited keywords and is priced based on how many social media account you connect to it. While you won’t get an alert, Hootsuite has a freemium model that makes it a pretty good deal.
Manually Checking Social Media
If there’s no need for serious monitoring tools but you still need to keep your eyes and ears peeled, going the manual route is a good idea too. Twitter has its own search tool for advanced searches that can be accessed at search.twitter.com. You can also create advanced searches on LinkedIn, and of course, you can search Facebook for company pages.
Beyond the big three, you should also be in the know about industry focused social media sites. One great example for the beer industry would be Untappd. Untappd is a social media site where beer lovers can “check-in” to the beers they’re drinking. On the brewery side, you can manage your listing and add your beers. The platform is 100% searchable, making it a great way to go looking for beer names you may have trademarked. We all know the beer industry is ripe with trademark violations!
Being efficient is crucial in the trademark world. The best way to be efficient? Harnessing all the best technology tools. Use social media to stay on top of your trademarks and if you don’t already use Name Warden, check us out to monitor USPTO data.