The KDP rejection nobody explains
KDP’s message reads “your book contains content that may infringe a trademark”. It does not say which word. Authors resubmit, get rejected again, and lose launch week. The word is almost always in one of four places: the title, the subtitle, the author name or the seven keywords.
TM Atlas scans exactly those fields, checks every brand-like phrase against 54,2 million marks in 85 registers, and shows you the phrase and the registration that would trigger the rejection.
What gets checked
- Title and subtitle — capitalised names, coined words, two- and three-word phrases. “Mindful Mandalas for Cricut lovers” gets CRICUT flagged.
- Author — pen names, as a whole phrase.
- Keywords — each of the seven separately, with exact, look-alike and sound-alike matching.
- Description — brand references, lower weight.
Classes default to 16, 9 and 41 — printed matter, digital books, and publishing/education services — which is where book trademarks live.
How to read the score
A HIGH REVIEW on a keyword means a live mark, identical or nearly so, in classes 16, 9 or 41. That keyword will be caught. Replace it with the generic term (“sticky notes”, not the brand).
A REVIEW is a look-alike or sound-alike. Check the owner and classes shown; if the mark is in unrelated goods or dead, the reasons list will say so and you can move on.
LOW means nothing close in the registers we hold. The coverage panel under the result shows which registers were searched, so you know what “nothing” covers.
Series names and low-content books
Planners, journals and coloring books are where most collisions happen, because the market is crowded and titles are short. Before you commit to a series name, check it as a brand on the brand name search — a live mark in class 16 with the same name will block the whole series, not one book.
Save every check as evidence in the app · Merch by Amazon check