Etsy began as a marketplace for handmade and independent goods, but today it is also a target for IP infringers: sellers who copy designs, reproduce logos, and use trademarked names and slogans without permission. Whether someone has stolen your artwork, replicated your branding, or is selling counterfeit versions of your products, Etsy does have a reporting process in place. But it takes time, requires thorough documentation, and approved takedowns do not always stick.
This guide covers everything you need to know, from identifying what type of infringement you are dealing with, to filing your report, handling disputes, and scaling your protection when manual enforcement is no longer enough.
TL;DR
- Etsy handles four main types of IP infringement: copyright, trademark, counterfeit goods, and patent. Each requires proof that you own the relevant IP.
- Before filing, gather your IP registration details, contact information, infringing URLs, and direct evidence, such as screenshots and side-by-side comparisons.
- There are two reporting routes: the Etsy Reporting Portal, which is best for registered brands managing multiple reports, and the standalone IP Infringement Report Form, which is suitable for one-off cases.
- Etsy reviews reports within a few business days. Sellers have 10 days to counter a takedown notice. If they do, and you want to maintain the removal, you will need to initiate legal proceedings.
- If Etsy rejects your report or the seller reappears, escalation options include resubmitting with stronger evidence, emailing Etsy’s legal team directly, sending a cease-and-desist, filing a DMCA takedown, or pursuing legal action under the Lanham Act.
- Manual reporting works for isolated cases; persistent infringers who create new accounts or modify listings after each takedown require continuous cross-platform monitoring, not case-by-case responses.
Quick overview
| Field | Details |
| What this guide covers | How to identify, report, and remove copyright and trademark infringements from Etsy shops and listings |
| Who it is for | Brand owners, designers, IP teams, and sellers whose intellectual property is being misused on Etsy |
| Types of infringement covered | Copyright, trademark, counterfeit goods, patent |
| Key reporting tools | Etsy Reporting Portal for registered brands · Etsy IP Infringement Report Form for one-off reports |
| What you will need | IP ownership proof, registration numbers, jurisdiction, infringing URLs, comparison evidence |
| Review timeline | Etsy typically reviews within a few business days; sellers have 10 days to file a counter-notice |
| When to escalate | Rejected reports, persistent re-offenders, or high volume across platforms warrant a dedicated protection service |
What types of IP infringement can you report on Etsy?
Before you file a report, it is important to understand what Etsy’s IP reporting system is, and is not, designed to handle. The platform’s reporting tool covers the following categories:
- Copyright: for example, a seller uses your original photos, videos, or artwork to advertise their products without permission.
- Trademark: a seller copies your registered logo, brand name, or slogan and uses it in their listings or shop name.
- Counterfeit goods: someone is selling fake versions of your products that imitate your brand’s appearance.
- Patent: a seller has copied your invention and is selling unauthorized versions on Etsy.
What is common to all of these is that you must be able to demonstrate that you own a specific type of intellectual property and that another party is misusing it.
Etsy’s IP reporting tool is not intended for situations where someone is only partially copying your designs, or for reporting gray market sellers or people selling legitimate products outside your distribution agreements. If you are unsure whether your situation qualifies, Etsy’s dedicated IP legal information page at etsy.com/legal/ip can help clarify.
What to gather before you file your report
Etsy’s reporting process requires detailed information and evidence. Collecting and organizing everything in advance will make filing significantly faster and reduce the risk of rejection due to incomplete submissions.
Here is what to have ready:
- Company information: your legal business name, website, and contact details. This information will also be shared with the seller you are reporting, so use a business email and mailing address rather than personal details.
- IP ownership proof: trademark or copyright registration numbers, jurisdiction, and trademark class.
- Examples of your IP: links or files showing your original work or registered mark online.
- Details of the infringing material: the seller’s username, shop name, listing URLs, or links to infringing videos or Explore posts. Listing IDs, meaning the string of numbers after “listing/” in the URL, are also useful.
- Direct evidence of infringement: screenshots of the infringing shop or listings, side-by-side comparison images, or original image files for stolen logos.
Keep dated records of all the evidence you gather. The more thorough your documentation at this stage, the stronger your report will be.
How to report copyright or trademark infringement on Etsy
Etsy offers two reporting routes, depending on how often you anticipate needing to file reports.
Which reporting route should you use?
The Etsy Reporting Portal, available at etsy.com/ipreporting, is the best choice for brands that have already registered their IP with Etsy, or that need to manage multiple reports. You add your IP documents and ownership information once, and reuse them across future reports. The Portal also lets you search Etsy’s database for infringing listings using brand keywords, save suspected infringements in one place, and report individual listings by URL or listing ID, which the standalone form does not support.The standalone IP Infringement Report Form, available at etsy.com/legal/ip/report, is better suited for one-off reports. It lets you report shops, shop videos, and Explore posts, but does not allow individual listing reports. If you anticipate needing to report infringements regularly, the Portal is the more efficient long-term option.
Step-by-step: filing via the Etsy Reporting Portal
Step 1: Add your IP to the Portal
When you first access the Portal, add your copyright, trademark, or patent information. You only have to do this once. From this point on, you can apply it to any future reports. The form asks for the name, description, and an example location of your work, along with registration number and jurisdiction.
Step 2: Add your ownership details
Link an owner, either yourself or your company, to the IP you have registered. This is the contact information that Etsy will use, and share with the infringing seller, so use business rather than personal details.
Step 3: Create a new report
Navigate to the Reports tab and click Create a Report. Add a reference title, select the relevant IP owner and IP type, then click Create & Add Listings to search Etsy for infringing content.
You can select listings from search results or upload a list of URLs or listing IDs directly.
Step 4: Submit
Once you have collected the infringing listings and linked them to the relevant IP, submit your report. You will receive an email confirmation that it has been received.
Step-by-step: filing via the standalone IP Infringement Report Form
Step 1: Enter your contact information
Use a business email and mailing address, as this information will be shared with the seller you are reporting.
Step 2: Prove IP ownership
Specify which trademark or copyright has been infringed and provide your registration number, jurisdiction, and trademark class. If more than one of your marks has been infringed, use “Add another property” to include additional IP.
Step 3: Select the material you are reporting
Choose the material type that best fits your situation: a username, shop name, or video from a shop or Explore post.
Step 4: Enter the infringement details
Provide the seller’s username, shop name, or the direct link to the infringing video. For multiple infringements, use the “add multiple at once” option for bulk reporting.
Step 5: Authorize and submit
Confirm that all information provided is accurate and that you are acting in good faith, then sign and submit your report.
Step 6: Follow up
Monitor your inbox for any follow-up communication from Etsy. They may request additional information to verify your claim, so respond promptly to avoid delays in the review process. If you filed through the Portal, you can also track the status of all your reports directly in the dashboard.
What happens after you submit your report?
Etsy’s legal team typically reviews infringement reports within a few business days and will email you with the outcome.
If Etsy approves your takedown
The infringing listing, video, or seller account will be suspended or removed. However, sellers can and do reappear, sometimes under a new account name or with modified listings, so it is important to keep monitoring Etsy for further infringements.
If Etsy rejects your report
There are a few common reasons for rejection: inaccurate information in the report, insufficient evidence of infringement, or a mismatch between the type of IP claimed and the type of infringement reported.
If your report is rejected, do not give up. You can:
- Resubmit with stronger evidence: add more detailed proof of your IP ownership and clearer documentation of the infringement, ensuring all information is accurate and current.
- Email Etsy’s legal team directly: useful for urgent or repeat cases, especially where a seller keeps reappearing after multiple takedowns.
Handling counter-notices
Etsy follows DMCA takedown protocols, which means sellers have the right to file a counter-notice if they disagree with your infringement report. If you receive a counter-notice, you have 10 days to notify Etsy that you are pursuing legal action against the seller. If you do not, Etsy is required to reinstate the content.
This makes it essential to verify your claim carefully before submitting. False or mistaken reports can expose you to legal liability and damage your credibility with Etsy’s review team. For example, sellers often use branded terms in their descriptions in ways that do not constitute infringement. A shop selling third-party Apple Watch bands may legitimately use “Apple Watch” as a descriptor without infringing Apple’s trademark.
What to do if Etsy does not take action
If you have followed the reporting process and Etsy still has not removed the infringing content, it is time to escalate.
- Send a cease-and-desist letter directly to the seller, making clear that continued infringement will result in legal action. This creates a paper trail and can be enough to prompt removal without further steps.
- File a DMCA takedown request if copyright infringement is involved. This is a formal legal mechanism that obligates platforms to act on verified copyright claims.
- Consider legal action under the Lanham Act, which governs trademark registration and ownership rights in the US. A trademark attorney can advise on whether your case meets the threshold for litigation.
- Engage a brand protection service like Red Points to automate detection and enforcement across Etsy and other platforms at scale.
How Red Points can help protect your brand on Etsy and beyond
Manual reporting on Etsy works for isolated cases, but it does not scale. Infringers are quick to adapt, changing account names, tweaking listing images, or moving to other platforms after a takedown. If your brand is dealing with a high volume of infringements, or if bad actors keep resurfacing, you need a more systematic approach.
Red Points’ AI-powered brand protection platform detects and removes infringements across Etsy and 5,000+ online marketplaces simultaneously.
Red Points processes 90M+ new links per day and delivers 5.1M+ enforcement actions per year across 1,300+ brands, spanning Etsy, Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Taobao, Shopify, and thousands of other marketplaces from a single platform. For Etsy specifically, the platform scans multiple times per day and acts on confirmed infringements automatically, without requiring manual review for every case.
Here is what makes it different:
AI-powered detection, around the clock
Red Points goes beyond keyword search. Our platform uses image recognition to scan for your logos and visual assets, not just text matches. Etsy is scanned multiple times per day to catch new infringements as soon as they appear, not days later.
Automated enforcement
Once an infringement is detected and validated, Red Points sends automatic takedown notices on your behalf. You can manually review incidents using image cards, or set up automated validation rules to let the system act immediately on clear-cut cases.
Custom AI trained on your brand
Unlike generic detection tools, Red Points trains its AI on your specific brand assets, including logos, product images, and past enforcement data, for better accuracy and fewer false positives.
Multi-platform coverage
Etsy is rarely the only platform where infringers operate. Red Points protects your brand on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Taobao, Shopify, and thousands of other marketplaces, all from a single dashboard.
Legal backup for disputes
When sellers push back with counter-notices or Etsy’s process stalls, Red Points can provide legal support to escalate your case and resolve disputes, without you having to navigate the process alone.
Revenue Recovery
Through Red Points’ Revenue Recovery Program, you can identify sellers profiting from your intellectual property and take action to reclaim lost revenue, turning brand protection into a proactive business strategy rather than a defensive cost.
Next steps
Copyright and trademark infringement on Etsy chips away at the brand you have worked hard to build. Etsy’s reporting tools are a useful starting point, but manual enforcement has real limits, especially as your brand grows and infringers become more persistent.
By combining Etsy’s built-in reporting process with proactive monitoring and the right enforcement technology, you can protect your IP more effectively and spend less time chasing fakes.
To learn more about how Red Points can help you detect and remove Etsy infringements at scale, request a demo.
Frequently asked questions
The underlying reporting process is the same. Both go through Etsy’s IP Reporting Portal or the standalone infringement form, but the evidence you need to provide differs. For copyright claims, you need to demonstrate that you created the original work and that the seller has reproduced or used it without permission. For trademark claims, you need a registered trademark, including registration number, jurisdiction, and class, and evidence that the seller’s use of your mark is likely to cause consumer confusion. Etsy treats each type of infringement separately, so if a seller is violating both your copyright and trademark, you should file distinct reports for each.
For trademark infringement reports, yes. Etsy’s reporting process requires a registration number, jurisdiction, and class. Unregistered or common law trademarks are harder to enforce through Etsy’s platform. Copyright, however, does not require registration to exist. Your original creative work is protected automatically from the moment of creation in most jurisdictions, and you can report copyright infringement on Etsy without a formal registration number.
Both are possible, but the route you use depends on what you are reporting. The standalone IP Infringement Report Form lets you report an entire shop, a shop video, or an Explore post. To report individual listings, you must use the Etsy Reporting Portal, which allows you to search for and submit specific listing URLs or listing IDs. For brands dealing with a shop that has multiple infringing listings, the Portal is the more powerful option.
Etsy typically reviews reports within a few business days. There is no fixed public SLA, and complex cases or those requiring additional evidence may take longer. If your report is urgent, for instance, the infringing listing is actively damaging your sales or reputation, you can try contacting Etsy’s support team directly to flag the urgency. Using the Reporting Portal also gives you visibility into the status of your case, unlike the standalone form, which relies entirely on email communication.
Under DMCA protocols, a seller who receives a takedown notice has the right to submit a counter-notice disputing your claim. If they do, Etsy notifies you and gives you 10 days to confirm that you are pursuing legal action against the seller. If you do not respond within that window, Etsy is required to reinstate the removed content. This is why it is important to be confident in your claim before filing, and to act quickly if you receive a counter-notice.
This is one of the most frustrating challenges of manual enforcement. Persistent infringers often create new accounts or modify their listings just enough to evade detection after a takedown. In these cases, escalation is necessary: email Etsy’s legal team directly with a history of the infringer’s activity, send a cease-and-desist letter to the seller, and consider involving legal counsel. For ongoing problems across multiple accounts, an automated enforcement service like Red Points is far more effective than manual case-by-case reporting, as it can detect and act on new accounts as soon as they appear.
Rarely. Infringers who target your brand on Etsy often operate on multiple platforms simultaneously, including Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Shopify, and others. Dealing with each platform’s separate reporting process manually is time-consuming and leaves gaps. A multi-platform protection service that monitors all major marketplaces from a single dashboard is the most efficient way to ensure your brand is covered wherever infringers may appear.
Yes. Etsy’s reporting process allows authorized representatives to file on behalf of IP owners. When filling out the form, you will be asked whether you are the IP owner or an authorized representative. If you are acting as a representative, you will need to provide the IP owner’s details as well as your own, and confirm that you have authority to act on their behalf. Filing a false report as a representative carries the same legal risks as filing one as the IP owner directly.
