B. Should You Do It Yourself?

There are three ways to conduct a trademark search. You can:
•Do it yourself using free online databases.
•Hire a search service or an attorney to do it for you.
•Do some of it yourself and hire someone to do the rest.
The third approach may give you the best legal protection for your time and money. Using your computer to search for registered trademarks on the PTO's website can be quick, easy and can provide good preliminary information. But before you actually put any serious money into building and marketing your own website, it would be wise to put your choice of domain name through a more thorough search for both registered and unregistered marks. You can also do this more rigorous search yourself if you are willing to climb a moderate learning curve. (See Section D, below.) Or, you can hire a trademark search service to do it for you. Count on paying roughly $200 to $400 per name. There are some things that a search service can do more efficiently (and often more inexpensively) than you can do for yourself. (See Section E, below.)