Hi my friend and I are interested in starting a brew pub. We’ve had several great ideas for names but with the overstauration of the market, we keep determining that it’s all been done before. If a bar or restaurant goes bankrupt, is their trademark available for purchase and reuse As a bar again across America? Is there a database or listing of bars/restaurants that go bankrupt? Thank you.
What is the name of your state?
The bankruptcy of a company does not mean their trademark is available for use by another. Depending on the type of bankruptcy filed, the trademark can continue to be used by a company or the trademark could be one of the assets sold.
Federally registered trademarks can be found by doing a search of the USPTO's database:
https://www.uspto.gov
https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/search-trademark-database
In the US, trademarks do not have to be registered for a holder of a mark to have rights in a name, however, so your trademark search cannot start and end with the USPTO. You must also search state registrations and do a more general search engine search of specific names you are looking at using that are not registered but are in use as a company/goods/services identifier.
It is important to note that even if a trademark search shows a mark as "dead" or "abandoned," trademark rights may still attach to the name (think "Edsel").
Many people hire a trademark search firm because the searches must be thorough and can be time-consuming.
One way to avoid infringing on another's rights to a name is to invent your own word to use as an identifier. This is what Google and Kodak and Adidas did. Or you can use a real word in an unexpected way - which is what Arrow shirts and Penguin books and Apple did.
(Didn't notice the previous thread, Zigner. Sorry.)