Trademark Clearance MCP

Can I use this brand name? A hosted MCP server that scores candidate names against the US federal trademark register — the screening layer incumbents charge thousands per year for, computed from public USPTO data.

Point any MCP-capable agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, custom agents) at this server and it can run trademark clearance screening as a native tool call.

Tools

clearance_check — the flagship

One call answers "how risky is this name?". Searches the register for similar marks (identical, phonetic sound-alikes, fuzzy misspellings, containment), weighs Nice-class proximity and live/dead status, and returns:

• an overall risk level: HIGH / MODERATE / LOW / MINIMAL
• scored conflicts with serial numbers, owners, and per-conflict rationale in plain language
• a summary you can act on

{
  "name": "Lumina Labs",
  "nice_classes": [9, 42]
}

similar_marks

The raw scored candidate list — every similar mark with similarity score, match rationale (phonetic / fuzzy / containment), status, owner, and classes. For when you want the evidence, not the verdict.

mark_status

Authoritative per-mark status from the official USPTO TSDR API by serial or registration number: current status, key dates, owner, classes, goods/services. Verify any conflict before acting on it.

Why scoring beats searching

Anyone can search the USPTO's website for an exact string. The risk hides in what exact search misses:

• AKME blocks ACME (phonetic equivalence — Double Metaphone)
• LUMENA blocks LUMINA (one edit apart — Jaro-Winkler + edit distance)
• LUMINA COFFEE matters for LUMINA (dominant-wording containment)
• A conflict in class 42 matters for a class 9 filing (related-class analysis)
• A DEAD identical mark is not a bar — but flags possible common-law risk

This server encodes those judgment rules — the computable subset of the DuPont likelihood-of-confusion factors — and returns them with rationale, not just a result list.

Usage (MCP)

Streamable HTTP endpoint:

POST https://<actor-standby-url>/mcp

Add to Claude (or any MCP client):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trademark-clearance": {
      "url": "https://<actor-standby-url>/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Pricing

Pay per event — no subscription:

Event	Tool	Price
clearance-report	clearance_check (and batch runs)	$0.25
similar-marks	similar_marks	$0.05
status-check	mark_status	$0.01

For comparison: incumbent clearance platforms run $10,000+/year; attorney knockout searches bill in hours.

Batch mode

Run the Actor directly with input { "candidates": ["Name One", "Name Two"], "niceClasses": [9, 42] } to clearance-score a shortlist into the dataset — useful for naming sprints.

Data sources & limits

• USPTO federal trademark register (public data) and the official TSDR API.
• US federal register only: no common-law, state, or international coverage.
• Not legal advice. This is a screening signal to order your shortlist and brief your attorney — not a substitute for professional clearance.