Check a book title for trademark conflicts before you publish.

When should I run a title through the Trademark Checker?

Run it early, as soon as you have a title or series name you are serious about and before you spend time on the cover, the listing and the launch. The Trademark Checker is a quick screen that can show you marks worth looking at while changing the title is still cheap.

It is also worth using for series names, imprint names and distinctive phrases, not only the main title, if you plan to build a brand on them. Pro and Publisher Pro include unlimited checks, so you can test several candidates and compare them instead of settling on the first idea.

How do I read the results sensibly?

Treat the list as a set of things to examine, not a verdict. The similarity score measures how alike the words are. It does not judge meaning, market or how readers would see the two marks, so a high score is a prompt to look closer and a low score is not a clearance.

Open the closest marks and read what they are for. A live mark that is nearly identical to your title deserves serious attention. A dead or abandoned mark is shown differently, but that is information to bring to a professional, not a reason to stop thinking about it.

Check the same title in both the US and EU records if you plan to sell in both. Keep a note of the date you checked, the title wording you entered and the marks you looked at, because records change over time.

What does the Trademark Checker not cover?

It screens only US (USPTO) and EU (EUIPO) records, and only classes 16 and 41. Class 9, which covers downloadable ebooks and audiobooks, is not checked. Other countries are not covered either, and nothing outside those records and classes appears in the results.

That matters if you publish Kindle ebooks or audiobooks, or if you sell in markets such as the UK or Canada. A clear result means only that this screen found nothing in the records it checks. It does not make a title safe.

The checker also cannot see unregistered, common-law use, or claims that have not reached the records it reads.

Why does a professional check still matter?

Whether two marks conflict is a legal question about the goods, the markets and the likelihood of confusion, and a word-similarity score cannot answer it. A qualified trademark professional can search more widely, including the classes and countries this screen leaves out, and can advise on your specific situation.

This page is not legal advice. Use the Trademark Checker to rule out obvious problems and to arrive at the conversation with a shortlist. The more you plan to invest in a title, a series or a brand, the more a professional check is worth paying for.