Can You Sell Sabrina Carpenter Merchandise on Etsy? Trademark, Copyright and Likeness Rules

With the "Man's Best Friend" era in full swing and "Short n' Sweet" still driving streams, Sabrina Carpenter is one of the hottest names in pop right now — and that makes her one of the most tempting names on Etsy. Search her name and you'll find thousands of shirts, tote bags, glass cans, keychains, and album-cover prints, most of them from sellers who genuinely don't realize they're sitting on three overlapping legal problems at the same time.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: an artist at Carpenter's level comes with a registered trademark portfolio, a record label with a dedicated brand-protection operation, and a merchandise business generating serious money. Unofficial merch isn't a gray area to those people — it's lost revenue they actively police. If you're building a shop around her name, her lyrics, her album art, or her face, you need to understand exactly what's protected before a takedown notice or an Etsy suspension finds you.

This guide breaks down the three separate laws that apply, what each one blocks, and the thin strip of ground where fan-adjacent merch is actually defensible.

The short version: You almost certainly cannot legally sell merch using her name as branding, her lyrics, her album artwork, her photos, or her likeness. You can sell genuinely original designs that merely reference being a fan — but the line is narrower than most sellers think.

Three different laws are working against you at once

Most sellers treat this as a single "will I get sued" question. It's actually three distinct legal regimes, and one listing can violate all three simultaneously. You have to clear every one of them to be safe.

Copyright protects creative works — song lyrics, album cover artwork, photographs, and music videos. Putting a line from "Espresso" on a mug, or recreating the "Short n' Sweet" cover, is copyright infringement even if you redraw it yourself.

Trademark protects brand identifiers used in commerce — names, logos, and slogans that identify the source of goods. A major recording artist's name and tour branding are typically registered as marks for exactly this kind of merchandise.

Right of publicity protects a person's name, image, and likeness from commercial exploitation. This is a state-law right — strongest in California, New York, and Tennessee, the heart of the music industry — and it covers her face, her recognizable silhouette, and even clear references to her persona.

You can be perfectly clear of copyright and still lose on right of publicity. Working out which law each design element triggers is the whole game. We cover the likeness side in depth in our guide to selling products with a celebrity's name, face, or likeness.

Why a booming era makes enforcement worse, not better

It's easy to assume a busy, rising artist won't have time to chase small Etsy shops. The opposite is true. The bigger the official merchandise operation, the greater the incentive to protect it — and the more resources there are to do so.

When an artist has an official web store selling album-branded tees, hoodies, tote bags, and vinyl variants, every unofficial listing is a direct competitor siphoning off fans who'd otherwise buy from the licensed store. Labels and artist management routinely hire third-party brand-protection firms whose entire job is to scan marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, and Redbubble for infringing listings and file takedowns at scale.

You do not need to go viral to get flagged. You just need to use the wrong keyword in your title. Automated systems don't care whether you've sold two items or two thousand. See our guide on how brands find and report Etsy shops for how this actually works behind the scenes.

What you almost certainly cannot sell

Be honest with yourself about these. Each one fails on at least one of the three laws.

Her lyrics. Any line from any song is copyrighted the moment it's written. "Espresso," "Please Please Please," "Taste," "Manchild" — snippets on shirts, mugs, prints, or stickers are all infringing. This is the single most common violation we see, and it isn't a gray area. Redrawing the text or changing the font doesn't help. More on this in our breakdown of selling shirts with song lyrics.

Album and single artwork. Recreating, tracing, or "inspired-by" reproductions of the "Short n' Sweet" or "Man's Best Friend" covers — or any single art — is copyright infringement. Drawing it yourself does not create a new copyright. It creates a derivative work, which the original owner controls.

Her photos and likeness. Any photograph of her is copyrighted by the photographer, and using her image commercially also violates her right of publicity. That includes drawn portraits, "fan art" renderings, and recognizable silhouettes. A cartoon version of her face on a sticker fails on likeness even if you never used an actual photo.

Her name as branding. Using "Sabrina Carpenter" as the headline of your product — printed large on a shirt, or as the identity of the item itself — is using her name to sell goods. That implicates both trademark and right of publicity. Using it in your listing description to honestly say what a design references is different (more below).

Tour and era names, logos, and official slogans. Tour names and stylized logos function as trademarks. Treat any official branded phrase or graphic as off-limits.

The "it's just fan art" myth: Fan art is not a legal category that grants you rights. Making something out of love, or making very little money, does not create a defense. Copyright and trademark infringement don't require intent to harm or significant profit — a single infringing listing is enough to trigger a takedown.

The narrow lane that can be defensible

There is a sliver of legitimately safe ground, but it's smaller than most sellers want it to be. The principle: your design has to stand on its own as original creative work, and any reference to her can only appear as honest description — never as the product's branding or selling point.

That can look like a genuinely original slogan or illustration that expresses a mood or aesthetic associated with a fandom, without copying any protected element. What it cannot do is lean on her name, lyrics, art, or face to make the sale. If you removed the celebrity reference entirely and the design collapses into nothing, it was never original — it was borrowing.

Nominative use — referring to her by name to accurately describe what your original design is about — is the one place her name can legitimately appear, and it belongs in your listing text, not stamped across the product. Before you rely on it, read our explainer on right of publicity for celebrity merch, because the line between "describing" and "trading on her identity" is exactly where sellers get caught.

A pre-listing checklist

Before you publish any Sabrina Carpenter–adjacent listing, run through this:

1. No lyrics. Strip every line of copyrighted text from the design.
2. No album or single art. No recreations, traces, or "inspired by" reproductions of any cover.
3. No image or likeness. No photos, drawings, or recognizable silhouettes of her.
4. No name as branding. Her name never appears as the headline or identity of the product itself.
5. No tour names, logos, or official slogans in the art or the title.
6. The design stands on its own as original creative work without the reference.
7. No implication of endorsement — no "official," no "licensed," no fan-club framing.

Clear all seven and you're in defensible territory. Fail any one and you're exposed to a takedown, a cease-and-desist, or an Etsy IP strike.

Run your title and tags through a trademark search before listing as a final step. Keyword tools reward you for stuffing a famous name into your title — that's exactly what gets you reported.

If you've already received a takedown or letter

Don't panic, and don't ignore it. A cease-and-desist is a demand, not a lawsuit, and an Etsy IP notice is a removal, not the end of your shop. The usual safe response is to remove the flagged listings promptly and not re-list the infringing items. Fighting a well-founded copyright or trademark claim from a major label's legal team is rarely worth it for a small seller.

The real danger to your business is repeat infringement. Etsy tracks IP strikes on your account, and accumulating them can suspend your entire shop — not just the flagged listing. If you're carrying risky listings, learn how Etsy's policy violations page and IP strikes work before you find out the hard way, and know what to do if your shop is suspended.

The bottom line

Selling Sabrina Carpenter merchandise on Etsy is legally hazardous in nearly every form that's commercially appealing. Her name and tour branding as trademarks, the copyright in her lyrics and album art, and her right of publicity in her name and face combine to block almost everything a fan instinctively wants to make. A booming era doesn't make enforcement lazier — it makes the merch business bigger and the incentive to police it stronger.

The only durable approach is to create genuinely original work that doesn't borrow protected material, and to keep any reference to her name confined to honest descriptive language in your listing text. It's a smaller market than knock-offs — but it's one that won't get your shop suspended.

ShieldMyShop scans your Etsy listings for trademark, copyright, and likeness risks before a rights-holder or Etsy's bots find them — flagging the exact terms and images that put your shop at risk. Start a free trial and find out where you're exposed before it costs you your shop.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Trademark and right-of-publicity law vary by state and change over time; consult a qualified IP attorney for your specific situation.