Screening and searching

Both start from the same sign, but they answer different questions. A Search, available in GSE through the Search button, is the full clearance tool. It runs every search type your input allows and gives you ranked results lists, separate for Graphical, Textual, Non Graphical, Color and Semantic results, with the most similar marks first. You can crop the image so that only part of it is compared, include inactive records such as cancelled or refused marks, filter by jurisdiction, Nice class and products or services, tick the results that matter, open AI Assisted Analysis and export a report of your selection. A Positioned Screening is a quicker availability picture. It skips cropping, the Image Information panel and inactive records, and shows a Summary view with a short text on whether oppositions are possible and a world map coloured by jurisdiction, plus Distribution Chart and Map view, where red means May be impossible, orange May have issues and green No Foreseeable problems. Use screening to test an idea quickly or across many jurisdictions, and a search when you need to see and select the actual conflicting marks. A screening can be turned into a search with View results. The two are priced differently and the cost depends on your plan and the jurisdictions chosen; Confirmation of Purchase always shows it before anything runs.

You can search with an image only, with text only, or with both together. On the start screen you place the image in the image area and type any words in the Text to search field. An image, such as a logo, label or figurative mark, gives you the visual searches: Graphical Results, which compare how the image looks; Color Results, which compare its colour palette; and, when the AI has proposed semantic concepts for it, Semantic Results, which look for marks conveying the same ideas. Text, such as a word mark, a brand name or a slogan, gives you Textual Results and Non Graphical Results, which compare the words in other ways, including how they are written and how they sound. There is no separate field for slogans: you simply type the slogan as text. When you give both, GSE runs all the applicable types in a single search, and if the AI reads words in your image it proposes them as search text, which you can keep, edit or clear. If you press a button without having chosen an image or typed any text, you see No image or text selected. Please select an image or insert a text to search. The same choice applies to a Positioned Screening, where an image gives Conceptual and Chromatic results and text gives Textual ones.

On the start screen, click the image area to choose a file from your computer, or drag the file from a folder and drop it onto the area. GSE takes one image per search; to use a different one, remove the current image with the bin button (Delete image) and add the new one. Accepted formats are PNG, BMP and JPEG, including .jpg, .jpeg, .jfif, .pjp and .pjpeg files. Once the image is in place, choose Search or Positioned Screening and GSE analyses it on the configuration screen: it reads any text in the image and proposes it as search text marked AI suggested, describes the image, proposes semantic concepts and extracts its main colours. The Search or Screening button stays disabled until that analysis has finished. For the best results, use a clear image of the sign itself, with good resolution, on a plain background and without photographs of products or surrounding text that are not part of the mark. If your logo sits inside a label, a packaging design or a larger artwork, you do not need to edit it beforehand: in a Search you can use Crop Image on the configuration screen to draw boxes around the parts to compare, so that only the cropped areas are searched graphically. Cropping is not offered in Positioned Screening.

GSE accepts images in PNG, BMP and the JPEG family, which covers files ending in .jpg, .jpeg, .jfif, .pjp and .pjpeg. These cover nearly every logo or figurative mark you are likely to have, whether exported from a design tool, saved from an office's register or scanned from paper. If you choose a file in any other format, such as a PDF, a vector file, a TIFF, a GIF or a WebP image, GSE shows Invalid Image and does not load it. In that case open the file in any image editor or design application and export or save it as PNG or JPEG, then upload the converted file. PNG is a good choice for logos with flat colours and sharp edges; JPEG suits photographs and scanned material. Whatever the format, quality matters more than size: a clear, well-lit image of the sign, without heavy compression artefacts, borders or unrelated elements around it, helps the AI read its text, describe it, propose concepts and extract the palette more accurately, and helps the graphical comparison find the closest marks. You can upload only one image per search or screening; if the mark appears inside a larger design, use Crop Image on the search configuration screen to compare only the relevant part.

Leave the image area empty, type the word mark, brand name or slogan in the Text to search field on the start screen and choose Search. The configuration screen opens without the image panels: you give the search a Reference, check the Jurisdictions and, under Toggle More Options, choose Nice classes or type products and services, and decide whether to Include inactive records. When you start the search, GSE runs the two text search types and shows them as separate buttons on the results: Textual Results and Non Graphical Results, the latter comparing the text in other ways, including how it sounds and how it is written, so you also find marks that look different on paper but sound alike. Slogans are handled the same way, as text; there is no separate slogan field. You can also screen a text with Positioned Screening, which gives Textual results in the charts and maps. Text searches are priced separately from graphical searches, and Confirmation of Purchase shows the cost before anything runs. On some plans text searching is particularly economical: the Free plan lists 25 Silver credits for a text search in the European Union, international registrations, Portugal or Spain, and Core includes All-You-Can-Search for text in those same jurisdictions. Subscriptions shows the current figures for your account.

When you add an image and also type text in Text to search, GSE treats them as one search and runs every search type that applies to each. From the image it runs the graphical comparison, the colour comparison and, if semantic concepts are present, the semantic search; from the text it runs the textual comparison and the non-graphical comparison, which also considers how the words sound and are written. You confirm and pay once, with Confirmation of Purchase showing the cost of the combination before anything runs. On the results, each type has its own button, Graphical Results, Color Results, Semantic Results, Textual Results and Non Graphical Results, and only those the search produced appear, so you review them one at a time with the same filters and views. On the configuration screen, GSE reads any words it finds in the image and fills them in as search text marked AI suggested. Check that suggestion carefully: keep it if the words are part of your mark, correct it if the AI misread them, or press Clear if you want the image searched on its own. If you change the text after a search has run, GSE creates a new configuration and asks you to run the search again, which is priced again. Combining image and text is the usual choice for mixed marks.

Reference is your own name for a search or screening, typed in the Search Configuration panel on the configuration screen, for example My first graphical search. It does not affect the results in any way; it exists so that you and your colleagues can recognise the search later. You see it when you hover over the search's card in the strip at the top of the search page, together with the type, text, jurisdictions, classes and concepts, which is especially useful once you have several searches open in one session. It also identifies the search when you pay for it and on the reports you export, so a client or colleague reading the PDF knows at once what it refers to. If something goes wrong with a search or a screening, quote its Reference when you contact support, so the team can find it quickly. A consistent naming convention pays off, particularly in a team: for instance the client's name, the mark, the type of check and the date, such as ACME logo clearance EU 2026-10-05. Because GSE does not keep a separate history page, a clear Reference together with the exported report is the best way to file your work. The tour of the configuration screen also points out the Reference field and explains its purpose.

The strip at the top of the search page shows your session searches: one card for every search or screening you have made since you signed in, with an icon for its type, and a + button, Search another, to start a new one. Hover over a card to see its details: the Reference you gave it, the Search type (Screening, Complete search, Graphical or Textual), the Search Text, the Jurisdictions, the Nice classes, shown as All when all 45 were included, and the Semantic concepts. Click a card to go back to that search or screening and its results. A search you have already paid for can be reopened from its card without paying again, so you can move freely between, say, the results for a logo and those for its word element. The strip belongs to the current session only: when you sign out it is cleared, and GSE has no separate search history page to bring old searches back. Before you finish, therefore, export to PDF or Excel the reports you want to keep, and give each search a clear Reference so the files are easy to find later. If your session expires, you are asked to sign in again, so export important results promptly rather than leaving them open for a long time.

Screening List, on the start screen, is meant for checking several concepts in one go. It opens a form with up to 10 rows, each with room for an image and a text, a counter showing how many rows you have used (n / 10), and + and - buttons to add or remove rows, so that you could, for instance, compare a shortlist of candidate names or logo variants. This feature is not yet available, so you cannot run a Screening List at the moment, even though the button and the form are already visible. In the meantime, use Positioned Screening, which screens one concept at a time: put the first image or text on the start screen, run the screening, and then use Search another on the strip at the top of the page to screen the next one. Each screening you make stays as a card in the strip for the rest of your session, so you can move between them to compare their summaries, charts and maps, and you can export each one to PDF or Excel to keep the results together. Give each screening a clear Reference, such as the client and candidate name, so they are easy to tell apart. If you need a larger batch of concepts checked, contact support or the sales team to discuss your needs.

Use the + button, Search another, in the strip at the top of the search page. It takes you back to an empty start screen, where you add a new image or text and choose Search or Positioned Screening as usual. The search you have just made is not lost: it stays as a card in the strip for the rest of your session, and clicking the card brings you back to it and its results. A search you have already paid for can be reopened this way without paying again, so you can switch between several searches freely. From a results list there is also a quicker route when one of the marks found deserves its own search: choose Search this Image on that result and, after you confirm Do you want to search this image?, GSE starts a new search using that mark's image, while your original search remains in the strip. Remember that changing the parameters of an existing search, such as its text, jurisdictions, classes or concepts, creates a new configuration that must be run and paid again, so if you want to keep both versions side by side, start the new one with Search another. The strip is cleared when you sign out, so export the reports you need before leaving.