So, OHIM is doing something useful with the abundance of cash it generates after all: yesterday, the beta version of TMView, a comprehensive and free search tool for trade marks, went online.

From the OHIM's news release:

A test version of TMview, providing free access to more than 5m trade marks, is available from today. This new service is designed to simultaneously search, free of charge, the databases of existing trade marks held by OHIM, WIPO, and the UK, Czech, Italian, Benelux, Portuguese and Danish IP Offices.

The trade mark information from eight other European IP Offices should be available between the end of 2009 and early 2010 – and more will come at a later stage. The full release of TMview is planned for early 2010, but users can check out a test or "Beta" version immediately.

I haven't had the time to test it thoroughly, but a first look seems very promising. The lack of a similarity search option seems the most glaring omission, and the limited coverage will (at the moment) make it necessary to use other search tools as well. However, once all the European offices participate, this could be really, really useful. Go check it out!