Before registration it is a good rule to do a proper inquiry to ensure that no rights by other parties exist on the chosen name. For this type of search the data banks can be consulted, some are available to the public, some are more complex to be checked and must be paid. The first ones are available at the Chamber of Commerce, who ask for a small contribution and only checks the Italian marks on the internet site: www.uibm.gov.it. However, you need to bear in mind, that this national data bank is limited, as it does not include community and international trademarks that are also valid in our country. Moreover, to do a complete search, it will be necessary to check not only for identical marks to ours, but also on similar or those reminding us of it phonetically; this is difficult to do with the data banks available to the public. When we have feelings on a possible previous use of it, is often advisable to seek the help of private researchers who use different methods and can compare data. In the case where a company has used a trademark without registering it, then it would not appear in the data banks and the search would have to be done solely in an empirical manner. You should also bear in mind that, if the mark has been used and not registered, at local level, the subsequent registration by third parties is not jeopardized, unless done in bad faith.