POD & KDP Trademark Checker: Etsy, Merch by Amazon, Redbubble and KDP trademark checker (USPTO)

Check your print-on-demand (POD), Etsy, Amazon Merch on Demand, Redbubble, Teepublic, Shopify and Amazon KDP listing titles and tags against live U.S. federal trademarks (USPTO) in the product classes POD sellers actually sell in. Paste listings or slogans and get a high / medium / low risk score for each, plus the exact trademark behind every flag: mark, serial and registration number, owner, status, classes and a direct USPTO TSDR link.

Find risky phrases before you upload. That helps you avoid takedowns, account suspensions and IP complaints.

Is this phrase trademarked? Paste it into phrases and find out in seconds, for about a third of a cent.

Ready-made examples by platform

Each link opens a ready-to-run example with sample input and output. Click Try to copy it into your account and replace the sample listings with your own.

You sell on	What it checks	Example
Merch by Amazon	T-shirt titles and keywords in class 25 (clothing)	Merch by Amazon trademark checker
Etsy	Titles and all 13 tags, including brand names hidden in tags	Etsy trademark checker
Redbubble / Teepublic	Sticker, shirt and phone case designs (classes 16, 25 and 9)	Redbubble trademark checker
Amazon KDP	Book titles, subtitles and your 7 backend keywords (classes 16 and 9)	KDP book title trademark check
Any POD shop	A list of slogans, quotes or design text	Is this phrase trademarked?
Mugs and tumblers	Drinkware listings in class 21	Mug and tumbler trademark check
Printify / Printful / Shopify	Store-wide audit, including product descriptions	POD store trademark audit
Seasonal (Q4)	Halloween and Christmas slogans	Halloween and Christmas shirt trademark check
New clothing brand	Brand name ideas in class 25, including spacing variants	Clothing brand name trademark search
TikTok Shop	Product titles, including "dupe" listings that name a brand	TikTok Shop trademark check

⚠️ Not legal advice. This is an automated screening tool. It compares your text with the USPTO's live federal trademark records. It does not cover state or common-law trademarks, copyrights, design patents, foreign marks, trade dress, logos or images, or the right of publicity. It does not judge likelihood of confusion, fair use or descriptive use. No flag does not mean a phrase is safe. A flag does not mean you are infringing. For decisions that matter, talk to a trademark attorney.

What it does

• Checks every phrase in a listing. It extracts every 1–5 word phrase from the title and from each tag, and never joins words across a separator such as | or ,, or across two tags.
• Matches against about 4.4 million live USPTO marks. That covers registered marks and pending applications, in the classes you choose. Dead, cancelled and abandoned marks are excluded.
• Uses POD classes by default:
  • 025: clothing (t-shirts, hoodies, hats)
  • 021: mugs and drinkware
  • 016: stickers, paper, posters, books and notebooks
  • 009: phone cases
  • 014: jewelry and keychains
  • 018: bags and totes
  • 020: pillows and decor
  • 024: blankets and textiles
  • 028: toys and games
• Fuzzy mode also catches:
  • spacing variants (justdoit vs JUST DO IT)
  • singular and plural forms
  • USPTO pseudo-marks (the alternate spellings the USPTO records for a mark)
  • phrases that cover most of a longer mark
  • a leading "the", "a" or "an" written differently ("Elf on the Shelf" vs THE ELF ON THE SHELF)
• Narrows checks to your product type. If a listing names its product (shirt, hoodie, mug, sticker, phone case, tote, pillow, blanket and so on), only that product's class is checked. That keeps out marks registered for unrelated goods. A product word that only describes another one counts as a description, not a second product: a "laptop sticker" is a sticker, not a laptop accessory. Turn this off with inferClassesFromListing.
• Scores risk so you can act quickly:

Risk	Meaning
high	Your phrase is exactly a live standard-character (word) mark for your product's class. Example: "Hakuna Matata" on a t-shirt matches Disney's reg. 2700605 in IC 025. A dictionary word only counts as high when it is a major brand portfolio, such as FORD (Ford Motor Co. holds 135 live FORD marks), or a less common word that one brand dominates, such as YETI (YETI Coolers holds 119 of the 139 live YETI marks).
medium	It matches the exact wording of a live stylized or design mark, a spacing variant ("spiderman" vs SPIDER-MAN), a plural or a USPTO pseudo-mark. It can also be a dictionary word that one owner has registered many times (CAT, owned by Caterpillar Inc.), or an ordinary word registered by several unrelated owners. A dominant-brand word (YETI) is medium when the listing doesn't name its product. Exact word marks are also reported as medium when the phrase is plainly descriptive in your listing: a style or format term ("vintage style", "boho", "dot to dot"), ordinary words plus the product type ("funny mug"), or very common words found only inside a longer phrase ("one more" in "Just One More Chapter"). Large brand owners' marks always stay high.
low	A common dictionary word, or a variant of ordinary English words, that happens to be registered. Also a phrase that is only the start of a longer mark, or a single word that is already covered by a flagged longer phrase in the same listing ("cat" inside "grumpy cat"). Hidden by default; turn on includeLowRisk to see these.
none	No live mark was found in the selected classes.

Input

{
  "listings": [
    {"id": "etsy-1", "title": "Retro Hakuna Matata Shirt, Funny Lion Tee", "tags": ["hakuna matata", "lion shirt"]},
    "Life is Good Camping Hoodie for Outdoor Lovers"
  ],
  "phrases": ["Stay Wild Moon Child"],
  "classes": ["025", "021", "016", "009", "014", "018", "020", "024", "028"],
  "matchMode": "fuzzy",
  "includeLowRisk": false,
  "maxListings": 0
}

• listings: plain title strings, or objects with title, tags, an optional id and an optional description. Set checkDescription to also check the description.
• phrases: standalone slogans, checked exactly as written as one whole phrase.
• classes: any Nice classes from 001 to 045.
• matchMode: fuzzy (default) or exact.
• maxListings: a hard cap on the number of items, to limit spend.
• confirmWithTsdr + tsdrApiKey (beta, optional, off by default): re-checks each high-risk mark live with the official USPTO TSDR API, using your own free key. It adds tsdrLive to each high-risk mark. This option is still in beta. It has not yet been validated against the live TSDR API, and it is rate limited to about 50 lookups a minute, so it is slow on big batches. If TSDR can't be reached, tsdrLive holds an error note instead. The main check does not depend on it.

Input limits and invalid items

• Very long text is truncated, not rejected: titles at 1,000 characters, tags at 200 characters each and 50 tags per listing, descriptions at 20,000 characters, phrases at 1,000 characters. Each listing that was cut gets a warnings field. Marketplace limits are far lower (Etsy: 140-character titles and 13 tags).
• HTML entities such as & and ' are decoded. Emoji and non-Latin text are accepted. USPTO word marks are matched on Latin letters and digits, so a listing written only in another script cannot be checked.
• Invalid items are reported and never charged. These include empty listings, wrong types (a number or a list where a title belongs), listings with no Latin letters or digits, and exact duplicates of an earlier listing or phrase. Each one becomes a dataset row with type: "skipped", charged: false and a skipReason. The rest of the batch still runs. If every item is invalid, the run fails with a clear message and nothing is charged.

Output

Each listing or phrase becomes one dataset item. The Console shows two views:

• Overview: one row per listing with its overall risk.
• Flags: one row per flagged phrase.

Example (shortened):

{
  "listingId": "etsy-1",
  "title": "Retro Hakuna Matata Shirt, Funny Lion Tee",
  "overallRisk": "high",
  "flaggedPhrases": ["hakuna matata"],
  "flags": [{
    "phrase": "hakuna matata",
    "foundIn": ["tags", "title"],
    "risk": "high",
    "matchType": "exact",
    "reason": "Exact match of a live standard-character (word) mark in a selected class",
    "matchingClasses": ["025"],
    "liveMarksMatched": 2,
    "marks": [{
      "mark": "HAKUNA MATATA",
      "serialNumber": "74558335",
      "registrationNumber": "2700605",
      "status": "REGISTERED",
      "statusDescription": "Registered and renewed",
      "standardCharacters": true,
      "classes": ["025"],
      "owner": "DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.",
      "tsdrUrl": "https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74558335&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch"
    }]
  }],
  "indexDataThrough": "2026-09-30",
  "disclaimer": "Automated screening against USPTO live federal marks only. Not legal advice; ..."
}

Skipped input items appear as rows with type: "skipped" and a skipReason. They are not charged.

The run summary is saved to the key-value store under the key OUTPUT. It includes counts per risk level, items checked, skipped items, any items not reached because of your spending limit, and whether the run stopped at that limit.

Pricing

Pay per result. No subscription, and no charge for skipped or invalid items.

What you check	Price	Example cost
Listing (title plus all tags, every phrase inside)	$0.01	100 Etsy listings: $1.00
Standalone phrase or slogan	$0.003	1,000 slogans: $3.00

Use maxListings or the run's maximum-cost setting to cap your spend. The Actor stops cleanly when it reaches your limit.

Data source and freshness

The index is compiled from the USPTO's public-domain Trademark bulk data, using a public mirror of the official files based on the Trademark Full Text XML annual backfile (TRTYRAP). Where available, USPTO daily files (TRTDXFAP) are applied on top. Only marks with a live USPTO status are included.

Each result includes indexDataThrough, the date the data is current to. It is currently 2026-09-30. Updates from the USPTO daily files are applied periodically, so recent filings, registrations and cancellations may not appear yet. Check the TSDR link on any flag for the mark's current status.

Checking runs entirely against this local index, so your listings are never sent to any third party. The optional TSDR check (beta) sends only the serial numbers of flagged marks to the USPTO.

FAQ

Is this phrase trademarked? Put the phrase in phrases (or try the slogan and quote checker example). You get every live USPTO mark with that wording in the product classes you sell in, with its owner, status and TSDR link. Remember this is screening, not legal advice: "none" means no live federal mark was found, not that the phrase is free to use.

Is there a trademark checker for Etsy, Redbubble, Merch by Amazon or KDP? Yes, this is one. The check is the same for every marketplace, but the right classes differ: clothing is class 25, stickers and books are class 16, mugs are class 21 and phone cases are class 9. The examples above are already set up for each platform.

Does a "high" flag mean I will get a takedown? No. It means a live USPTO word mark with the same wording exists for the same kind of goods. Marketplaces often remove listings when the owner complains, without any court ruling. Treat high as "remove or rename" unless a trademark attorney has advised you otherwise.

Why is "cat" or "love" not flagged by default? Single dictionary words are registered for many narrow goods, which makes them very noisy. They are reported as low risk unless one owner holds many live marks for that exact word (for example CAT, owned by Caterpillar Inc.) or dominates a less common word (YETI).

Does it check images or logos? No, only text.

Which marketplaces is it for? Any marketplace: Etsy, Amazon Merch on Demand, KDP covers and titles, Redbubble, Teepublic, Spreadshirt, Zazzle, Society6, Printful and Printify stores, and Shopify.