chktm

Screen proposed marks against the full US trademark corpus.

chktm is a research aid, not legal clearance. Trademark conflicts require a likelihood-of-confusion analysis that only a qualified attorney can perform. Do not rely on this tool for any legal decision. Always consult an attorney before adopting a mark.

What it does

Given one or more search terms, chktm screens them against the full active US trademark corpus (USPTO bulk data) and produces a report ranking matches by risk:

• HIGH — Live mark, name matches, and shares at least one international class
• MEDIUM — Live mark, name matches, but no class overlap
• LOW — Dead/abandoned mark (shown only with --include-dead)

chktm runs as a CLI, a web application, and an MCP server for AI agent access. It works on Linux (including Fedora/RHEL), macOS, and Windows.

Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• A free USPTO ODP API key

Install

All platforms:

pip install chktm

Or clone and install in editable mode:

git clone https://github.com/nickschuetz/chktm.git
cd chktm
pip install -e .

Set your API key

Linux / macOS (bash/zsh):

export CHKTM_USPTO_API_KEY="your-key-here"

To persist across sessions, add it to ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile.

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:CHKTM_USPTO_API_KEY = "your-key-here"

To persist, set it permanently:

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("CHKTM_USPTO_API_KEY", "your-key-here", "User")

Windows (Command Prompt):

set CHKTM_USPTO_API_KEY=your-key-here

To persist, use setx:

setx CHKTM_USPTO_API_KEY "your-key-here"

Initialize the corpus (one-time)

chktm init

This downloads the full USPTO trademark dataset (~22 GB compressed) and ingests it into a local SQLite database. Expect 2–4 hours depending on your connection and USPTO rate limits. The download is resumable — if interrupted, re-run chktm init and it will pick up where it left off.

By default, data is stored in a data/ subdirectory in the current working directory. To use a different location:

Linux / macOS:

chktm init --data-dir ~/chktm-data

Windows:

chktm init --data-dir $HOME\chktm-data

The data directory is saved automatically to your config file during init, so all subsequent commands (update, search, serve, status) find it without needing --data-dir again.

Config file location:

• Linux / macOS: ~/.config/chktm/config.toml
• Windows: %APPDATA%\chktm\config.toml

Resolution order (first wins): --data-dir flag > CHKTM_DATA_DIR env var

config file > ./data default.

Search

These commands work identically on all platforms:

# Basic search (default classes: 9, 41, 42)
chktm search thundercorp

# Multiple terms with custom classes
chktm search thundercorp "thunder corp" thunder-corp --classes 9,41,42

# Include dead/abandoned marks
chktm search thundercorp --include-dead

# JSON output for scripting
chktm search thundercorp --json

# Write report to file
chktm search thundercorp --out report.md

Keep the corpus up to date

chktm update

Downloads and ingests daily files published since the last update.

Check corpus status

chktm status

Web UI and API

Start the web server:

chktm serve

This starts a lightweight web interface at http://localhost:8000/ with:

• GET / — Search form
• GET /api/search?q=<terms>&classes=9,41,42 — JSON search API
• GET /api/status — Corpus status
• GET /docs — Interactive API reference (Swagger UI)
• GET /redoc — API reference (ReDoc)

Works on all platforms. On Windows, ensure your firewall allows connections on port 8000 if you want to access it from other machines.

MCP Server (AI Agent Access)

chktm exposes an MCP server so AI agents can search trademarks programmatically.

Remote (via web server)

Start chktm serve, then configure your MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chktm": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp/"
    }
  }
}

Local (stdio)

Linux / macOS:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chktm": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["-m", "chktm.mcp_server"],
      "env": {
        "CHKTM_DATA_DIR": "/home/youruser/chktm-data"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chktm": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "chktm.mcp_server"],
      "env": {
        "CHKTM_DATA_DIR": "C:\\Users\\youruser\\chktm-data"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available tools

Tool	Description
search_trademarks	Search for potential conflicts. Args: terms, classes, include_dead
generate_legal_report	Attorney-ready report with component analysis. Args: terms, classes
compare_searches	Diff two search runs — new, removed, risk-changed marks
corpus_status	Check database status, record counts, last update date

Testing with MCP Inspector

See docs/testing-mcp.md for step-by-step instructions on testing the MCP server with MCP Inspector — covers Streamable HTTP, SSE, stdio, and headless CLI modes on all platforms.

Usage Guide and Search Best Practices

See docs/usage-guide.md for detailed guidance on:

• Constructing effective searches (multiple variants, component words)
• Understanding and interpreting risk tiers
• Choosing the right international classes for your industry
• Common search patterns (LLC formation, product naming, brand refresh)
• Agent efficiency: minimizing tokens and round-trips via MCP
• What chktm does NOT catch (phonetic, visual, common-law, foreign marks)

OpenShift Deployment

See docs/deployment.md for full instructions on deploying to OpenShift with quay.io, including PVC setup, init job, and CronJob for automatic daily updates.

CLI Reference

chktm init [--data-dir ./data]                    # one-time corpus download + ingest
              [--off-peak]                        # 3x faster during 10pm-5am EST
              [--stream-ingest]                   # stream XML from ZIP (no disk write)
              [--keep-zips]                        # retain ZIPs after ingestion
chktm update [--data-dir ./data]                  # pull new daily files
              [--off-peak] [--stream-ingest]
chktm search <term> [<term> ...]                  # screen terms
              [--classes 9,41,42]
              [--out report.md]
              [--data-dir ./data]
              [--include-dead]
              [--json]
              [--report standard|legal]           # attorney-ready report (PDF if --out *.pdf)
chktm diff <old-report.json> <term> [...]          # compare with previous results
              [--classes 9,41,42] [--json]
chktm status [--data-dir ./data] [--json]         # corpus stats
chktm serve [--host 0.0.0.0] [--port 8000]       # web UI + MCP server
chktm version [--json]

All commands support --json for machine-readable output. Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = error, 2 = database not initialized.

Known Limitations

1. Wordmark only. Design marks, stylized marks, and image components are not searched.
2. Substring + phonetic matching. Searches match on text (substring) and sound (Soundex). "thundrcorp" will match "THUNDERCORP" phonetically. However, individual components ("thunder", "corp") are only searched automatically in --report legal mode. Advanced phonetic variants may still be missed.
3. US only. No EU, UK, WIPO, or other jurisdictions.
4. Bulk data lag. USPTO bulk data trails the live tmsearch UI by a few days. For very recent filings, also check tmsearch.uspto.gov manually.
5. Not legal advice. Consult an attorney for any real decision.

Data Source

USPTO Trademark Full Text XML Data from the Open Data Portal. The full corpus contains ~12.7 million trademark records dating back to 1884.

License

Apache-2.0

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Contributions use the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) sign-off.