USPTO Trademark Search: Bulk-Check If a Phrase Is Trademarked

What it does

If you sell print-on-demand T-shirts, mugs or stickers, using a slogan someone else has registered is a risk you want to catch before upload. Checking phrases one at a time in USPTO Trademark Search works, but not when you have a few hundred designs in the queue.

This actor checks each phrase against the official US trademark register (the same database behind USPTO Trademark Search) and returns one row per phrase with a clear verdict: registered-live, pending, dead-only or clear, plus live, registered, pending and dead match counts. Each row lists the matching marks with word mark, serial and registration number, status, filing and registration dates, owner name with state and country, attorney, international classes, goods and services, mark type and a direct TSDR link. Choose exact, contains or words matching and narrow by Nice class, for example 25 for clothing or 21 for mugs.

It is built for Merch by Amazon, Etsy and Redbubble sellers, brand namers and agencies screening many phrases at once. It is not legal advice. A clear result only means no matching mark text was on the USPTO register at check time; it does not cover common-law use, state or foreign registrations, design-only marks or similar-but-not-identical marks. Talk to a trademark attorney before relying on a result. The actor is not affiliated with the USPTO.

How it works

1. You paste phrases (case and extra spaces do not matter, duplicates are removed) and choose a match mode and optional international classes.
2. Each phrase is searched against the public backend of USPTO Trademark Search (tmsearch.uspto.gov) at no more than 2 requests per second, with back-off on rate limits.
3. All matching marks are counted by status to produce the verdict; the class filter, if set, applies to the verdict as well.
4. Up to maxResultsPerPhrase marks are listed per phrase (live first, then registered, newest first), filtered by statusFilter.
5. Invalid phrases, duplicates and failed checks are never charged, and the run stops cleanly at your spend limit.

Input example

A typical run input (JSON). Every field is also available as a form in the Apify console.

{
  "phrases": [
    "Just Do It",
    "Mama Bear",
    "Coffee Before Talkie"
  ],
  "searchMode": "contains",
  "statusFilter": "live",
  "classes": [
    "25",
    "21"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerPhrase": 20
}

Output example

One row per phrase, with the verdict and match counts up front:

Pricing

Pay per event: you are charged only for the results you receive, with no subscription. Set a maximum total charge on any run and it stops cleanly at the cap.

Prices are read from the live Apify Store listing when this page is built. The listing is always authoritative.

Use cases

How it compares

For a single important brand name, a trademark attorney's clearance search is the right call, and the free USPTO website is fine for occasional checks. This actor is a fast first-pass filter for large lists of phrases, not a substitute for legal advice.

Limits and honest notes

• Not legal advice. A clear verdict means no matching mark text was found on the USPTO register at check time. It does not cover common-law (unregistered) use, state or foreign registrations, design-only marks or confusingly similar marks (e.g. different spelling). Consult a trademark attorney before relying on it.
• Match modes: exact = the whole mark text equals the phrase (case-insensitive, a trailing . or ! is ignored); contains = the phrase appears anywhere inside the mark text, also inside longer words (CAT LOVER finds CRAZY CAT LOVERS); words = every word of the phrase appears in the mark, any order, with very common words such as IT or THE ignored by the USPTO index. When unsure, run contains, which is the most cautious.
• The verdict and the live/registered/pending/dead counts always cover every status; statusFilter only changes which marks are listed in matches. pending = live application not (yet) registered; it can still block you.
• The international class filter applies to the verdict too: with classes 25 and 21 a phrase registered only for software (class 9) comes back clear for your products.
• Privacy: only the owner's name, entity type and state/country are returned (as published on the public register). Owner street addresses, emails and phone numbers are never returned; for attorneys only the name.
• Gentle on USPTO: at most 2 requests per second with back-off on rate limits, so about 7,000 phrases per hour. For lists over ~6,000 phrases raise the run timeout above the default 1 hour.
• Data comes from the public backend of USPTO Trademark Search (tmsearch.uspto.gov) and is as fresh as that service, usually updated daily. US government data is in the public domain.
• Respects your run budget: set a maximum total charge and the run checks only as many phrases as it covers, stopping cleanly with every delivered row charged exactly once.

FAQ

Use it from code

Run the actor through the Apify API with the input above.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/actor-forge~uspto-trademark-search/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"phrases": ["Just Do It", "Mama Bear", "Coffee Before Talkie"], "searchMode": "contains", "statusFilter": "live", "classes": ["25", "21"], "maxResultsPerPhrase": 20}'

JavaScript (Node.js)

// Node.js 18+ (built-in fetch). Set APIFY_TOKEN in your environment.
const input = {
  "phrases": [
    "Just Do It",
    "Mama Bear",
    "Coffee Before Talkie"
  ],
  "searchMode": "contains",
  "statusFilter": "live",
  "classes": [
    "25",
    "21"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerPhrase": 20
};

const res = await fetch(
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/actor-forge~uspto-trademark-search/run-sync-get-dataset-items",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.APIFY_TOKEN}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify(input),
  }
);
const items = await res.json();
console.log(items.length, items[0]);

Python

# pip install apify-client   (set APIFY_TOKEN in your environment)
import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run_input = {
    "phrases": [
        "Just Do It",
        "Mama Bear",
        "Coffee Before Talkie"
    ],
    "searchMode": "contains",
    "statusFilter": "live",
    "classes": [
        "25",
        "21"
    ],
    "maxResultsPerPhrase": 20
}

run = client.actor("actor-forge/uspto-trademark-search").call(run_input=run_input)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

The run-sync-get-dataset-items endpoint waits for the run (up to 5 minutes) and returns the dataset rows directly. For longer runs, start the run asynchronously and read the dataset when it finishes, as the Python example does. Replace APIFY_TOKEN with your own token from the Apify console.

Step-by-step guides

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