Trademark guides / Smiley
Is “Smiley” safe to use on Etsy?
No, not unless you’re selling the genuine brand. “Smiley” is a trademark of The Smiley Company.
"Smiley" is a trademark that has been used to sue hundreds of Etsy shops. Say "happy face" instead.
Why it’s a problem
The Smiley Company holds trademarks for the word "smiley" and has sued hundreds of online sellers, many of them Etsy shops, in bulk "Schedule A" lawsuits. Defendants were sued for using the word in titles, descriptions or tags, and their accounts were frozen.
What Etsy does when it’s reported
Etsy removes a listing when a rights owner files an intellectual property report, and you can only respond afterwards with a counter notice. Repeated reports against the same shop can lead to suspension.
Etsy's Handmade category makes this worse: sellers describe their own designs with popular words, and some of those words belong to someone.
What to write instead
- happy face
- smiling face
- grin face
Check the rest of your listing
One trademark is rarely the only risk. The scanner checks your whole title and description against Etsy’s own rules and every term in our trademark list.
Related
Source: Vice: The people getting sued by Big Smiley
General information, not legal advice. Trademark status can change; this page was last checked on 2026-10-10.