TM Atlas

You got an Etsy trademark strike. Now what?

Etsy’s email names the rights owner and the listing. It does not name the word. Repeated strikes close shops, so the first day matters.

Find the word first

  1. Take the removed listing — title, all 13 tags, description — exactly as it was.
  2. Paste it into the Etsy trademark checker with your categories.
  3. Find the rights owner’s name in the results. The tag or phrase beside it is the one they reported.

Almost always it is a tag: a franchise, a team, a character, a fashion house you were “inspired by”. Sometimes it is your shop name.

Three kinds of strike, three responses

What was flagged Response
Someone else’s mark in a tag or title Remove it from every listing in the shop, not just the one reported. Rights owners search shops, not listings.
Your shop or product name Read the mark: status, classes, territory. Dead or unrelated goods → consider a counter-notice with the registration cited. Live and same goods → rename before the second strike.
A generic word someone registered Remove it now. If the word matters to you, that is an attorney conversation, not a counter-notice from a template.

What to send Etsy

Etsy does not require a plan of action the way Amazon does, but a short message through the case helps: what was flagged, what you changed across the shop, what you now do before listing. Keep evidence — the scan showing what you checked — in case of a later dispute.

Keep the shop safe

Run every new listing through the checker before it goes live, tags included. In the app, export the shop to CSV and scan it once; every listing gets a verdict, every scan is stored with a date.

Scan the removed listing · Screen the whole shop

Fair questions

How many strikes before Etsy closes a shop?

Etsy does not publish a number, and sellers report suspensions after as few as three notices in a short period. Treat every notice as one you cannot afford to repeat.

Should I file a counter-notice?

Only when you are confident the complaint is wrong — for instance the mark is dead, or in unrelated goods, or the word is used descriptively — and you are prepared for the owner to respond. A counter-notice on a real infringement escalates it. Check first.

Can I just relist the item?

Not with the same words. Relisting removed content is how shops get suspended. Fix the words, then list.

Every listing, before it goes live

A free account saves each scan as evidence, keeps a catalog of your listings and lets you check a whole CSV at once.

Start free