Brief: WIPO unveils image search for brands

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has added image-search functionality to its Global Brand Database, a collection of trademarks, logos and other symbols such as emblems.

The search function, which is the first such application among free, public intellectual property (IP) databases, allows users to upload an image to search for visually similar records from among the 4m images in the collection.

The database could be used for example, to identify products that are mimicking a trademarked logo or symbol.

The image-search technology supplements the database’s other querying criteria, including Vienna Classification codes, brand-holder names and country of origin, among others, according to the WIPO.