How to avoid design violations and account suspensions

Teespring’s goal is to empower people like you to bring great ideas to market and launch your own products with the same quality and economies of scale as a major retail brand. We have seen so many wonderful and original designs sold through Teespring, and we’d like to continue to be a platform where individuals or organizations can trust in our efforts to ensure their intellectual property and individual brand identity is safe! 

 

Understanding Trademark and Copyright Law

The slideshow below will explain how Teespring works to protect intellectual property such as trademarks and copyrighted designs as well as the Teespring Priority Policy which helps our users protect their designs from being copied by other sellers on the platform. Sellers who violate design regulations may have their account or listings suspended, so it’s important to understand trademark and copyright laws as well as how to avoid copying other seller’s designs.

If your unique and original listing has been blatantly copied, a seller may submit a complaint; while a phrase alone is not protected, the presentation of that phrase will be protected under our policy. If you have questions or issues, email [email protected].

You can learn more about trademark and copyright using the following resources:

  • USPTO.gov – The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site offers a FAQ section and a search engine where you can check for registered marks.
  • Copyright.gov – The U.S. Copyright office offers a helpful FAQ.
  • Trademarkia.com – Trademarkia also provides an easy-to-understand FAQ section and search engine.
  • Licensing Pages – Many brands and organizations have pages (look for a “Terms” page) that outlines their owned copyrights and trademarks.
  • AVVO – A website that allows users to ask for and receive free legal advice from reputable lawyers.

 

Trust & Safety features 

Instantly report listings

If you believe a listing violates your intellectual property rights or violates our acceptable use policies, you can simply flag it for our legal team to review by clicking the “Report this listing” link. As always, each reported listing will be reviewed and action will be taken according to our policies. 

 

Additional checkpoints during listing creation

There are two new checkpoints that will help indicate if your artwork or listing description could contain infringing content. These new features will largely prevent wasted efforts on listing removed for violating our policies.

  1. When uploading artwork, if our system indicates that your design might belong to someone else, you will receive a pop-up notification. From there, you have the option to upload a different piece of original art, or let us know that you have authorization to use that design.
  2. Once you choose a title, URL, and description, our system will scan your entry and let you know if it detects any terms that could be problematic. Before you launch, a popup will alert you if you need to change any of the terms you included.

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