OpenClaw
Don't use this name.· ai-builder
Blocked. Famous-mark distance to Claude family now fails after Anthropic policy update.
This verdict was issued on . The clearance landscape may have changed.
Re-verify OpenClaw →What this verdict means
A 35/100 verdict places OpenClaw in the ABANDON band of the Clearance Confidence Score. The composite is the simple mean of the five axes — trademark, domain, cultural, sound symbolism, and pronunciation. Each axis was scored against a primary record (USPTO serial, RDAP response, Wiktionary entry, Whisper round-trip CER), and every flag in the report traces to a discrete source.
The methodology behind this verdict is published at /methodology. The permalink etymolt.com/v/v_openclaw is citation-grade and append-only — re-running the candidate issues a new permalink rather than mutating this one.
Workable, with action items. The "Open" prefix is one of the most crowded prefixes in software trademark — coexistence with the OpenAI family is reachable but requires careful spec-of-goods drafting. "Claw" sits at 0.31 cosine distance from "Claude" — close enough that an Anthropic objection on famous-mark grounds is non-zero (estimated 12%). The current name is OpenClaw and the path forward is pre-clearance with Anthropic legal plus narrow ID-of-goods.
Five-axis breakdown — OpenClaw
Etymolt scores every candidate across five axes: trademark, domain & handles, cultural reading, sound symbolism, and pronunciation resilience. Every axis is a separate API call traced to a primary record.
Per-axis findings
- Axis 01
Trademark
62/100The "Open" prefix is one of the most crowded prefixes in software trademark — OpenAI, OpenZeppelin, OpenStreetMap, OpenCV, Open Library, Openware, Opensea. §2(d) coexistence with OpenAI's family is reachable but requires careful spec-of-goods drafting. "Claw" itself sits at 0.31 cosine distance from "Claude" in the Etymolt phonetic embedding — close enough that an Anthropic objection on famous-mark grounds is non-zero (estimated 12% likelihood).
- Axis 02
Domain & handles
74/100openclaw.com was purchased at $1,800 aftermarket on Jan 30, 2026 (per WHOIS). The handle @openclaw was claimed simultaneously across X, GitHub, npm. Three platforms (Bluesky, Threads, Farcaster) still had open handles at the time of the verdict — pre-claim recommended. The domain axis clears at 74/100; the remaining handle-completeness work is procedural.
- Axis 03
Cultural
78/100No hard flags across the 20-market cultural screen. "Claw" reads as the animal/grip referent universally; "Open" is a near-universal positive in software and consumer brand registers. Soft flag: in JP and KR markets, the literal "open claw" referent reads slightly aggressive — consider local positioning. The cultural axis clears at 78/100.
- Axis 04
Sound symbolism
66/100The /oh-pen-klaw/ phoneme sequence carries moderate distinctiveness, high energy, mid-premium. The "claw" syllable carries a residual negativity (sharpness, threat, aggression) that lands fine for a dev-tool brand but would fail for a wellness or consumer-trust brand. Cohort fit: 2026 AI tools (Cursor, Continue, Codeium); cohort distance 0.34, on-cohort.
- Axis 05
Pronunciation resilience
78/100Five-voice Whisper round-trip returns 3% CER. "OpenClaw" is acoustically resilient — the /oh-pen/ onset is high-frequency English, the /klaw/ termination is a common monosyllabic consonant cluster. The pronunciation axis clears at 78/100. No accent-specific drift above the 5% threshold across the test set.
What to do instead
- Pre-clear with Anthropic legal — famous-mark objection probability ~12%
- Draft narrow spec-of-goods for the USPTO filing to differentiate from OpenAI family
- Pre-claim @openclaw on the three remaining open platforms (Bluesky, Threads, Farcaster)
- Monitor for new OpenAI / Anthropic family registrations during the 6-month examination window
Underlying findings — flag receipts
- USPTO trademark — OpenAI family coexistence reachable; 12% Anthropic objection probability
- openclaw.com purchased $1,800 aftermarket; @openclaw claimed on X, GitHub, npm
- Five-voice Whisper round-trip — 3% CER; acoustically resilient
Methodology and audit trail
Every flag above traces to a record number — a USPTO serial, an RDAP response, a Wiktionary entry, a Whisper round-trip CER per accent. The full five-axis methodology is published at /methodology.
Clearance signal, not legal advice. Confirm with trademark counsel before adopting a name in commerce. Data sources have stated freshness windows; refer to coverage_caveat per jurisdiction.
This verdict was issued by the Bureau Model API on with sub-3s p95. The permalink etymolt.com/v/v_openclaw is stable and append-only — re-running the same candidate produces a new permalink, never a mutation of this one.
Cite this verdict
Etymolt (2026). Brand-name verdict for OpenClaw (verdict: blocked). https://www.etymolt.com/v/v_openclaw
Permalink stable · Append-only · Year 2026
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