Trademark Clearance Checker — USPTO Name Screening & Conflict Research

Trademark Clearance Checker runs a trademark search on the business name you are about to use and screens it against live USPTO trademark records.

It is built for founders, shop owners, and creators who are close to spending money on a logo, a domain, or a first product run, and who want to know first whether the name is already taken.

You get back one summary per name: exact and close matches grouped by Nice class, each with its owner, its status, a similarity score, and a plain reason it matched, plus a signal level that says how crowded the name looks.

What this tool is — and is not

This is a trademark screening and research tool. It organizes public USPTO records to help you research naming options and spot potential conflicts early.

It is not a legal trademark clearance service, and its output is not a clearance decision.

Disclaimer: The output of this Actor is an informational trademark screening and research summary generated from public USPTO records. It is not legal advice, not a legal opinion, and not a substitute for a professional trademark clearance search performed by a qualified trademark attorney. Trademark rights and registration outcomes depend on many factors beyond the records shown here, including common-law use and the distinctiveness of the mark. Consult a trademark attorney before adopting, using, or filing to register any name. The same disclaimer is included in every output record.

Input

• Names to screen — your candidate names (required)
• Nice classes of interest (optional) — matches in these classes are flagged
• Similarity threshold — how close a record must be to count as a near match
• Include dead records — cancelled, abandoned, and expired records are reported separately when enabled
• Max matches per name

Output

One dataset record per name:

• summaryText — the plain-language research summary
• conflictSignalLevel — HIGH / MODERATE / LOW, from live-record counts only (not a legal assessment)
• liveExactMatches, liveNearMatches, deadMatches — counts
• matchesByClass — matching records grouped by Nice class
• topMatches — strongest matches first, with similarity score and match reasons
• disclaimer — the legal disclaimer above, on every record

Sample output

One real record from the October 23, 2026 verification run, dataset FfmvpWxqgTw5FUBYd, trimmed to the essential fields, with topMatches shortened to the first match. The run screened two names; this is the first.

{
  "name": "Nimbus Coffee Roasters",
  "conflictSignalLevel": "MODERATE",
  "liveExactMatches": 0,
  "liveNearMatches": 60,
  "classesWithLiveMatches": [
    "016",
    "021",
    "025",
    "030",
    "032",
    "035",
    "040",
    "043"
  ],
  "summaryText": "Screening summary for \"Nimbus Coffee Roasters\": found 0 live exact match(es) and 60 live near match(es) at similarity >= 0.55, plus 56 dead record(s). Live matches appear in Nice classes: 016, 021, 025, 030, 032, 035, 040, 043. Conflict signal level (record counts only, not a legal assessment): MODERATE. Strongest live matches: NIMBUS COFFEE (class 043, LIVE, owner: Nimbus Coffee LLC (LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY; CALIFORNIA, USA), similarity 0.863); COFFEE ROASTERS (class 030, LIVE, owner: Coffee Roasters, Inc. (CORPORATION; NEW JERSEY, USA), similarity 0.86); NIRVANA COFFEE ROASTERS (class 030, LIVE, owner: Andrew j Chetram (INDIVIDUAL; USA), similarity 0.783). This is a research summary of public records, not a clearance decision.",
  "topMatches": [
    {
      "mark": "NIMBUS COFFEE",
      "serialNumber": "90272676",
      "status": "PUBLICATION/ISSUE REVIEW COMPLETE",
      "isLive": true,
      "owner": "Nimbus Coffee LLC (LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY; CALIFORNIA, USA)",
      "niceClasses": [
        "043"
      ],
      "filingDate": "2020-10-22",
      "similarityScore": 0.863,
      "matchType": "near",
      "matchReasons": [
        "one mark contains the other's full text",
        "shares distinctive word(s): COFFEE, NIMBUS",
        "sounds alike (phonetic match)"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "disclaimer": "DISCLAIMER: This report is an informational trademark screening and research summary generated from public USPTO records. It is not legal advice, not a legal opinion, and not a substitute for a professional trademark clearance search performed by a qualified trademark attorney. Trademark rights and registration outcomes depend on many factors beyond the records shown here, including common-law use and the distinctiveness of the mark. Consult a trademark attorney before adopting, using, or filing to register any name."
}

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.001 Actor start + $0.01 per name screened. No subscription. A name whose screening fails is not charged — you only pay for completed summaries.

Worked cost example: 10 completed screenings cost $0.001 for the run start plus $0.01 each, for $0.101 in event charges.

Honest limits

1. This screening reads public USPTO records only. It does not see common law use, state registers, or applications filed after the run finishes.

2. Similarity scores and the signal level are sorting help for research. They are counts and comparisons, not legal conclusions.

3. A name with no matches is not cleared, and a crowded name is not automatically unusable. Only a qualified trademark attorney can give a clearance opinion.

4. This tool is a screening and research aid. Its output is not legal advice and is not a substitute for a professional clearance search.

Notes

• Data comes from the public USPTO Trademark Search index, the same index behind the official search UI. Record coverage and status reflect what the USPTO publishes.
• Similarity is computed with explainable signals (identical text, spelling distance, shared distinctive words, phonetic match) — every near match lists why it was included, so you can judge it yourself.

Works well with

Once a name passes screening and the brand starts moving, the next job is usually reaching people: suppliers, stockists, and partners worth writing to. Fresh Email Finder at https://apify.com/delta_tools/fresh-email-finder reads the contact emails companies publish on their live websites, so the launch list is built from real addresses instead of guesses.