Type a phrase — or upload the design itself and let it read the words off the artwork — and this free checker screens for trademark risk before you publish. It matches against the brands that generate most Etsy takedowns (Disney, Bluey, Harry Potter, the Olympics, Nike, Taylor Swift and the rest), searches the live US federal trademark register for close matches in the classes a print-on-demand shop actually sells in, and then hands you one-click searches of the UK, EU, Australian, Canadian and Japanese registers plus the two global aggregators, WIPO and TMview. Everything is reported with a link to the official record. It is a risk screen, not legal advice and not a clearance search, and it will not tell you a listing is safe.
Check a phrase
Hi there,
A rights holder has told us they believe some of your listings infringe their intellectual property. We have reviewed their report and removed those listings from the marketplace.
They are no longer active, they will not be seen by buyers, and you cannot edit or relist them.
If you receive further policy violations we may remove any Star Seller badge you hold, and your account may be suspended.
Not a real notice and not from any marketplace — this is an illustration in our own words. The real one names the rights holder and lists every removed listing. It arrives after the artwork is made, the mockups are rendered and the copy is written, and against a large brand’s automated programme an appeal rarely goes anywhere. The check above takes ten seconds.
How to use it
- Type the phrase, or upload the design — Put in a title, a tag or a design idea and press Check. Alternatively upload one image and the lettering is read off the artwork in your browser and screened instead — it reads text, so it cannot recognise a drawn character.
- Read the known-brand result first — A match against the curated list of franchises, characters, celebrities and consumer brands with active marketplace enforcement comes back instantly. Those are what actually pull listings.
- Read the US register matches — Anything the list does not settle is searched against the live US federal trademark register, scoped to the Nice classes print-on-demand sells in. Every match links to its official USPTO record by serial number, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
- Search the other registers — The UK, EU, Australian, Canadian and Japanese registers, plus WIPO and TMview, open as one-click searches with your phrase already filled in. The US is the only major register with a free search API, which is why the rest are links rather than results.
- Change the phrase and check again — If something matched, rewrite the title or tag and re-run it. A clear result means nothing close turned up in the classes searched — it is one check passed, not clearance, and it is not legal advice.
The problem this solves
Most Etsy sellers find out a design was protected when the listing disappears and a strike lands on the shop. By then the artwork is made, the mockups are rendered and the listing copy is written. The check that would have prevented it takes ten seconds, but the tools that do it are built for trademark attorneys and priced accordingly.
What it does
The brands that actually cause takedowns
A curated list of the franchises, characters, celebrities, sports bodies and consumer brands with active marketplace enforcement programmes. These are what pull listings, and they are matched instantly with no lookup.
The live US register
Anything the list does not already settle is searched against 14 million US trademark records, scoped to the Nice classes print-on-demand sells in — apparel, paper goods, mugs, frames, textiles, bags, jewellery, phone cases and party goods — so a yarn registration is not reported as a risk to a poster.
Upload the design itself
Drop in one image and it reads the lettering off the artwork, then screens those words. The reading happens in your browser, so the design never leaves your machine — which matters when you are checking something you have not released. It reads text, not pictures: a drawn character with no words on it has nothing for it to find, and the page says so rather than letting a clean result look like a clearance.
Every major register, one click each
The US is the only one with a free search API — the UK IPO publishes none, and EUIPO and TMview need an approved data agreement. So the rest open with your phrase already filled in: WIPO Global Brand Database and TMview cover 80+ offices between them, then the UK IPO, EUIPO, IP Australia, CIPO and J-PlatPat individually.
Every result is checkable
Each match links to its official USPTO record by serial number. You are never asked to take our word for it, which matters because we are not qualified to give you a legal opinion and are not pretending to.
The public-domain trap, explained
Winnie-the-Pooh and Steamboat Willie are in the US public domain; Disney's trademarks in those names are not. Copyright and trademark expire on completely different schedules, and this is the misunderstanding that costs sellers the most.
Phrases that do not protect you
"Inspired by", "fan art", "not affiliated with", "dupe". None of them cure infringement, and because they show you had the brand in mind, they read as evidence of deliberate copying rather than as a defence.
Nothing is stored
What you type is used for the lookup and not recorded, which matters if you are checking an idea you have not released yet.
Where it lives in PSDmate
Free on this page, with no account: the verdict is open to everyone, and the detailed report (each flagged term, the records it matched, and the phrase with them taken out) unlocks with an email address. Inside PSDmate, listing copy is generated per design so the same phrase is not pasted across a whole shop — which is how one risky tag usually becomes fifty.
Questions
Can you tell me if something is copyrighted?
No tool can, and be sceptical of any that claims to. There is no searchable registry of every copyrighted work, and short phrases and single words are not copyrightable at all. What actually removes Etsy listings is trademark, which is a public register — so that is what this searches.
Does a clear result mean I can safely sell it?
No. It means nothing close turned up on the US federal register in the relevant classes. It does not cover unregistered common-law rights, EU or UK marks, copyright in artwork or lyrics, or publicity rights in a person's name and face. Treat it as one check passed, not as permission.
Does adding "not affiliated with" make it legal?
No. A disclaimer does not license a trademark, and it will not stop an automated takedown. It can help against a pure consumer-confusion argument, which is a small part of the problem.
Winnie-the-Pooh is public domain now — can I sell it?
You can use the 1926 book and its original illustrations, because that copyright expired in the US in 2022. You still cannot use Disney's designs, and Disney's trademarks in the name are live and enforced. Tigger is not covered either way, as he first appeared in 1928.
What happens if I get it wrong?
On Etsy, the listing is removed and the shop takes an intellectual-property strike. Enough strikes closes the shop permanently, and appeals against a large brand's automated programme rarely succeed. Larger rights holders sometimes go further than a takedown.
Does it check the UK register, or only the US?
The automated search is US only, because the US is the only major register with a free search API. The UK IPO publishes none — its last bulk data release was in February 2018 — and EUIPO and TMview require an approved data agreement. So the UK, EU, Australian, Canadian and Japanese registers are given as one-click searches with your phrase already filled in, alongside WIPO and TMview which cover 80+ offices between them. The known-brand list applies everywhere, and plenty of those brands are British.
Can I upload my design instead of typing?
Yes, one image at a time. It reads the lettering off the artwork in your browser and screens those words — the file is never uploaded. It reads text, so it will catch a slogan, a band name or a character name printed on the design, but it cannot recognise a drawing. No text found means nothing was read, not that the design is clear.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is a risk screen built from public records, and it is wrong sometimes in both directions. If a real amount of money depends on the answer, a trademark attorney running a proper clearance search is cheap by comparison.
Read more
- Trademarked Words to Avoid on Etsy
- Etsy Shop Setup Checklist
- Print-on-Demand Etsy Guide
- Best POD Niches on Etsy 2026
- T-shirt mockup generator
Other tools
- PSD Mockup Automation Without Photoshop — Every design across every template in one job, from the PSD files you already own.
- AI Art Generator for Print-on-Demand — Generate artwork at print resolution, with your own provider key and your own prompt library.
- Brand Kits, Frames and Layouts for Etsy Listings — Every listing image looks like it came from the same shop, without rebuilding it each time.
- Etsy Listing Video Maker — Turn the mockups you already rendered into the listing video Etsy pushes in search.
- Etsy Listing Automation and Bulk Upload — Render, write and publish a whole batch of listings to Etsy in one run.
- Etsy SEO and Listing Copy Generator — Titles, tags and descriptions written from the actual rendered image, not from a keyword you typed.