Design Guard is intended to reassure shoppers they are purchasing from the original, legitimate creator of the design. This feature also adds an extra layer of protection for designs and empowers Teespring sellers to take legal action against copycats directly. Anyone caught copying or stealing elements from a protected design will immediately be banned from Teespring and all of their listings will be disabled. Our team will also provide the copycat’s information (name and email) to the design owner in case they want to pursue legal action.
All Teespring sellers who own a registered trademark or copyrighted design are welcome to contact [email protected] to request Design Guard be added to their listing(s).
Please note sellers need to provide all listing URL(s) they’d like Design Guard to be added to as well as evidence of trademark/copyright ownership (this can include a registration certificate or ID number).
Example of how Design Guard appears on a Teespring listing
Does your design have copyrightable potential?
Please note Teespring cannot confirm copyrightable eligibility of your designs—you should consult a legal professional for advice if you have questions regarding your works. If you’re considering registering your designs there are a few questions you should ask yourself before moving forward:
- Is the work original to you?
- Does the work include some creativity on your part
- Is the work unique (i.e. are you the first to make something like this?)
If you answered yes to these questions and believe that your design is eligible for copyright protection you should consider registering the design with the appropriate copyright office. The registration process is easier than you think and you may be able to obtain enhanced legal protection for your artwork! In addition, a valid copyright registration will entitle you to Design Guard protection for your Teespring listings.
Please note, if you request to add Design Guard to a campaign that is later delisted due to a violation of our Acceptable Use or IP policies you may lose access to this feature and your trust score may be lowered.
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Hello Teespring,
My comment is concerning logging in. I was locked out of my account after I did 2 factor authorization. I therefore opened another account. Please can a member of your team help me.
Hey Rolle – no need to create a new account! Please contact [email protected] for assistance. Thanks
hello,
can you visit my account and please tell me which design are copy. then i will delete it.
thanks for the allowed me.
Hey there – usually we identify a copycat campaign when it’s reported. If you’re worried about getting in trouble you should only launch designs you know are 100% original and created by you.
HELLO TEESPRING,
HOW I PUT THE TEESPRING DESIGN GUARD TO MY PRODUCT?
So, if I am understanding this correctly, this only works if we have trademarked or paid to register the copyright of a design?
I am all for more restrictions on stealing, I have a huge ongoing problem with stolen designs showing up on Teespring, but I have hundreds of designs and simply can’t afford to pay the fees for official copyrights for all of them. I have started using the site Binded to register my designs, will you accept something like that?
Thanks for your help.
Hey Kelly – I’m not familiar with Binded but it might be worth reaching out to [email protected] about this.
Hello Kelly, Did you get more information about the use of Binded in combination with Teespring? Thanks!
You can place all your designs in a book and copyright the book. Now the contents of the book are copyrighted.
Hello, Teespring it been my dream to always design my own shirt, since I came across your site, I felt confident I could do it..
I believe my design is original and creative.. I wish to move forward with a copyright to all my design in the near future to issue a safe guard. Please bare with me while I do so..
Sincerely
Kameshia Graham
HI I have a logo reigistered in Japan.
Can i still protect my design or does it have to be in the USA aswell.
Our team should be able to accept globally registered works as well.
Hello Teespring,
A copycat owner of my designs, which I had reported previously somehow got my designs deleted. I have proof, that the ideas were mine and was posted by me first, but for more than a week your support is ignoring me and decided to delete my designs and let her keep them and all the other copy’s. Can anybody explain what is going on and whom I can contact to get a proper answer and appeal for the infringement of my rights?
Best Regards
Hey there – did you file a counter-claim or reach out to [email protected] after this happened? I’m not seeing any recent tickets from you to [email protected]. (learn more).
But what if I don’t want to post my designs on Teespring? Is there any protection for bonafide IP owners who sell on their own sites? Or are we going to have to continue relying on Teespring to “police itself”?
Hey there – you can use our IP form to report stolen artwork that you do not sell on Teespring. Learn more here:https://community.teespring.com/answers/protecting-your-intellectual-property-on-teespring/
This look really good can’t wait to try it
Hi Teespring,
If we sell our designs on the Teespring platform, is the design still ours? Meaning, if we decide to sell it in another market, we still hold the right to do so?
Or does Teespring own the design we upload?
Thanks,
Hi Jin, you own the rights to your own design!
Hi there. I am just setting up my Teespring account & have 2 questions.
QUESTION # 1
90% of my quotes that I will use are legally copyrighted within 2 of my published books, legally registered in the US copyright office and in Canada at the Cdn Copyright office. Since these are quotes taken from within my copyrighted books, can I use Design Guard on the quotes taken directly from my copyrighted books? The other 10% are copyrighted in Canada only.
QUESTION # 2
Do I own 100% of these quotes or in some way does Teespring. I need to ensure they are my quotes as copyright is owned by me personally.
Many thanks, Joanna
Hey Joanna, you own these quotes! If your listings are removed, you can email us with your proof of ownership to get them back up.
Short quotes from a book may or may not be covered by Copyright. Typically “Copyright doesn’t defend short sentences arguing that it would stifle creativity and therefore beat the purpose of copyright in the first place. The only exception is when the phrase includes the name of a recognisable character.”
Hi, I have a question that I would really like answered as I am looking to list on Teespring instead of Shopify. I have purchased a number of artistic elements on Creative Market and similar resources, with commercial licence – which I can prove. To generate designs for a very specific niche. Would my own creations with these elements count as eligible for Design Guard. This is in addition to my own completely original designs. Thank You.
Hey Jay, yes!
Hi Guys! The obvious nasty thing someone could do is to go through all the top-selling designs on TeeSpring, find any that don’t have design guard, and set up a store selling their own versions, undercut the price etc etc Is there anything to prevent this kind of black-hat stuff happening? Or is just a case of “Tough luck…you should have copyrighted your stuff!”
Hey Bo, if someone has copied your designs, please file an IP claim with us so we can get their content taken down.
how to download a guideline of any product from teespring?
I own hundreds of original, watermarked designs and I’m thinking about using your service. Design stealing appears to be a big issue here as it is in other places as well. Earlier someone was advised to register works in a book and copyright the book, but that would be an enormous project and also expensive to produce and pay the fees. According to the Copyright office’s website, a work is protected from the moment it is created. Why does Teespring make it so difficult and expensive for artists to protect their work by forcing them to go through a formal, difficult and expensive process? Original authors like myself can produce the original .ai or .psd documents to prove original design. Can I receive Design Guard and protection for those items with those original documents? Thanks.
The protection of a designer or creators original works is paramount to us. Of course there are challenges when thousands new designs are uploaded to our site every day—we have security controls that are run daily, but as with all sites this does not always prevent some users from trying. If you’re going to monetize your original works we suggest you do all you can to protect them including using all legal options available. However in the meantime if you are able to prove to us that your works are originals, our trust and safety team can help with the protection of the designs. Please send over an email to [email protected] for more assistance with this!
Hello teespring
A client have this message when he try purchase the items : scurity error ” they are problems with the security certificate for this site ” and kicks him back to the shopping cart !
Hey there. Please contact [email protected] and make them aware of this issue and I’m sure they can get to the bottom of this for you.