Trade Mark Searcher

Job Advert Summary

Spoor & Fisher is looking for a Trade Mark Searcher within the TM Formalities: Searching & Watching department. The successful candidate will be based in the Centurion office, reporting to the Senior Manager. The ideal candidate should be able to conduct detail Trade Mark searches to determine the availabilty or usability of a Trade Mark.

Minimum Requirements

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Attending to search instructions by conducting searches on the CIPC system:
  • Having an understanding of Acsepto and Ptolemy will be advantageous.
• Attending to the watching service by conducting searches of the South African and Territory Journals on our internal data system.
• Dealing with queries relating to trademarks and search results.
• Liaising with CIPC Officials via email and telephonically.
• Capturing fees and saving them to our internal filing system.

Duties and Responsibilities

Qualifications and Experience:

• Minimum Requirement – Matric Certificate
• Preferred – Bachelor of Arts, Journalism, or Language studies.
• Advantageous – Research studies

Knowledge and Skills:

• Strong command of the English language and the knowledge that many of the trade marks now include other languages;
• Curiosity of interchangeable languages, including phonetics and the following “borrowed” words, for example:
• • English “cat”, Sotho “katse”, Zulu “ikati”, Afrikaans “kat”;
• Having an awareness of cognates (words that share a common origin and have similar meanings across languages).
• • These can be found between English, Afrikaans and other indigenous languages, although their usage and nuances might differ;
• Having an awareness of synonyms allows for frequent interchangeable usage;
• Knowing the importance of context and a working knowledge of what would be “common to the classes” in Word trade mark searches, and to the category in Device trade mark searches;
• Having an awareness of trade marks in use or “confusingly similar” to existing trade marks;
• Having an awareness of terms that are inherently distinctive and not merely descriptive of the goods and services of the classes;
• A general knowledge that the term Trade Mark can take on many forms, such as a name, a signature, word, phrase, letter, numerical symbol and other symbols, motto, brand, design/image/device and /or a combination of these elements;
• Take an analytical approach to images and devices, for example, by seeing both the negative and positive spaces, as well as the linear, realistic, and stylistic elements.
• Good research skills and resourcefulness.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• An eye for detail – accuracy.
• Analytical thinking skills and an inquiring mind.
• Sense of urgency – deadline management.
• Ability to work well under pressure.
• Must be able to work independently and in a team.
• Prioritising and multitasking.
• Proficiency in MSExcel and MSWord.