Written by Christine, VP of Trust & Safety at Teespring
Teespring’s mission is to empower anyone, anywhere to create and sell quality products without cost or risk. We are proud of our community’s ability to create original and creative content. In the past several weeks, however, we have seen a surge of sellers who appear to have come to Teespring to copy, rip off, and sell other people’s content. This behavior will not be tolerated on Teespring and as such, we intend to take the harshest of actions against sellers displaying this behavior.
We are committed to protecting your unique and original content and preventing problematic sellers from accessing the site. We are currently implementing new updates to Teespring’s Intellectual Property Policy and Protocol. We plan to execute several more initiatives in the coming weeks that will offer additional protection for creative and original content on Teespring.
1. Additional seller support for intellectual property
As we ramp up content control, we’re also strengthening our support team. We have trained new agents to provide fast and efficient IP assistance to our seller community. Moving forward, any questions regarding listing or account disablement should go to [email protected] This includes:
- Inquiring as to why a listing was delisted
- Inquiring as to why an account was disabled
- Requesting an account/listing to be reinstated
When submitting copycat listings add “COPYCAT REPORT” to the email subject. Also, when contacting seller support, please include your Teespring account email and the listing URL (if you’re contacting us about a delisted listing). Please note we aim to review and answer all emails to [email protected] within 24 – 48 business hours (please see auto-reply for exact SLA during holiday/peak periods). Sending multiple emails regarding the same issue can prolong receiving a resolution. When your email is successfully sent you will receive an auto-reply containing your case number.
2. Harsher punishments & policy updates
Last month, we began implementing a “one strike and you’re out” policy for certain egregious violations. If a seller appears, in our sole discretion, to have deliberately violated our Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, or any other Teespring policy, their account may immediately be disabled.
One strike types of violations include keyword gaming, copying verified donation listings, uploading content that clearly violates our policies, etc. Any disabled accounts will immediately lose access to pending funds or payouts within their Teespring account. Learn more about our Terms of Service here.
The only way to access pending funds is to successfully get your Teespring account reinstated through seller support (see “Additional seller support for intellectual property” section above). It is very unlikely a disabled account will be reinstated—disabled accounts must provide extensive proof that they did not commit the design violation in question. Our decision on a request for reinstatement will be final and unappealable.
3. Seller Trust Scores
Over the last few weeks, we have been developing a system for internally ranking seller accounts. Sellers with an established sales history of using Teespring and who have few to no design violations will have the highest trust scores. Having a high score can increase your daily launch limit and get you faster payouts. It also prioritizes your content for the Boosted Network and determines where your content can be listed (only the highest scores get access to Amazon for example).
Teespring’s community is full of creative people who create original, unique content—this new system will help us ensure your content is featured first.
Please note that seller trust scores are currently not visible within seller accounts and we cannot provide your score to you (similar to your payout speed group), but sellers who abide by Teespring’s policies should have nothing to worry about. If one of your listings was delisted in error (for example our team delisted one of your original listings), please report it to [email protected] We will ensure the error does not impact your trust score.
4. Simplified design reporting process
This year we aim to eradicate copies of original seller designs (so-called “copycats”) from Teespring. The first step is to simplify our reporting process for sellers. Starting immediately, sellers can email Teespring Seller Support at [email protected] using the following format to quickly report copies of their original designs. You can report copycats on Teespring and the Boosted Network too.
- Teespring login email
- URLs to original listings/stores
- URLs to copycat listings/stores (listed on Teespring and/or Boosted Network)
Please note that designs with the same idea or concept are allowed to be sold on Teespring. However, an original design itself cannot be copied without the owner’s permission. Clear copying of other seller’s content (example pixel for pixel copies) can result in immediate disablement of your Teespring account and/or termination of access to the Boosted Network (see “Seller Trust Score” above).
All submissions will be reviewed within approximately 24 – 48 business hours. Once we have reviewed your case, you will be notified of the outcome—including whether the reported content (and corresponding sellers) have already been delisted or an estimated timeframe in which all reported content (and corresponding sellers) will be delisted.
IP Claim Form Reminder
Please keep in mind the IP Claim Form will remain available for individuals who would like to report infringement on their legally registered artwork. Only use this form if you have a copyright or trademark registration number or if you are making a claim regarding a design of yours that you do not sell on Teespring.
If you have more questions regarding these changes, please visit our Seller FAQ site.
I am glad this perfect community starting with better system
Weirdodesign
Thanks for the update and your support.
Hello! I would like to suggest the creation of an app for this site so that products can be created from cellphones. I personally use my cellphone for everything, and it will be less hassme to have an app for teespring where I may create products as well as track campaign progress.
-Thank You
I support this and really in need for the same suggestion
Having this in place is very necessary for persons such myself. To protect my designs protected from copycats. If I can’t get paid for my work because someone else would have already stolen my design and making tons of dollars is distasteful.
Completely agree not everyone uses or has a computers lots of people use their phones or iPad/tablets
Thank-you for implementing these policies to deter and eradicate copyright infringers from your site. I am proud of you guys for taking the necessary stance in protecting the artists/designers hard work and our income. It’s my hope that these policies will be strictly enforced and everyone will be properly informed beforehand of the actions and consequences that will be taken against them if the rules are not followed. I will continue to monitor your site for any infractions regarding my designs and I will consider to reinstate my business with you once I see a viable change.
Suggest that you stop allowing jpegs which can easily be taken off the Internet. I may have 100 designs on your site that have been copied and used on your site. I’ve reported 3 different designs where multiple sellers are using the same stolen design on their product. What if I’m accused of copying and I have the original illustration?
If you are the original creator / can prove original launch date you should be fine.
I would like to see all the dead profiles removed also, if someone has not been active for more than 3 months… for example remove all there content or hide from view, so the new comers have a chance.
So Many Crap Designs Cluttering the Site, No Disrespect to the Designers, But do they have any intention of improving or wanting to make a go of this.
Hey Reg – this is something we’re looking into.
About the trust score, some of us can’t get a customer so I suggest that if you guys could give the newbies a chance by promoting them so that they Can get going and in future they can pay for their own promotion
Hey, have you checked out our ultimate selling guide? It gives you all the tips for getting your first sales
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Great news you guys are awesome. I have several unique campaigns i want to launch and have been worried about this. I’ve even seen some tutorial videos from folks who just copy existing ideas rather than come up with their own. Thanks for the help. I’m just getting started but hoping for a good year.
This is some great and well needed improvements. Great work Teespring team!
This is a good time for everyone to review the terms, just in case you don’t know you’re not supposed to be doing something.
This is great news!! Catch these snakes. I do like the outsource you’ve been using to print. Thank you Teespring.
Feeling very blessed to hear that.. Thanks a lot for that.
Love it
How do I use Teespring for my business and how do I start
Hey Tina – check out the Training Center to get started 🙂
thanks
This is wonderful news! I will get back to designing on this site = )
Thanks so much… You would not believe some of the horror stories I have -and have heard from other artists!
Its very disconcerting to be ripped off in an already difficult profession, so well done Teespring – Kate Shoaf -and thanks for your vigilance!!!
awesome! Every artist deserves to be protected! 😀
Hi Kate Shoaf….speaking of working with original designs….
I sent a message to seller support, but canyou also advocate with your programmers to have a side view of all leggings on your main page? It’s does Teespring and us as your sellers zero good if a buyer is skimming through leggings and can’t see the actual design because they’re seeing a front view only! At first the response back I got from seller support was that’s the way it is, sorry, you can only get side views from the actual seller’s page. I emailed back to elevate this to a higher level. Your programmers are great at web design, but not marketing. Treating the way leggins are viewed as if they were a Tee shirt is wrong. We expect the design to be mainly on the front of a tee shirt, but leggings are different. All leggings designs would benefit from a side view and buyers will be able to see all products without having to click on a link. Thank you for your consideration.
Hey Mary-Dale – it would be good to offer the view to select front or side view (similar to how we offer this with t-shirts). I’ll pass on this feedback. Cheers.
Can I get back my account if already get suspended?
Please help me, how to?
Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Respect to post author, some wonderful information.
I create my own design, I am launched many campaign but failed to get any sell I have no budget for advertisement, and I am already done free posting method on social sites. is any way to get any sell organically from teespring site because I do my best for designing and marketing, I need to boosted network as far as possible for my success otherwise I lose hope from this platform
With FTL shipping, there are not any distribution stops between departure
and destination cities. How do they create sure your items is not
going to spoil when there is an urgent problem and what forms of shipping timeframes do
they give PSs. The good thing, however, is that
for the reason that package doesn’t use up a lot of space on the flight, it is usually not so harmful for make usage of air freight services for smaller shipments.
What if our design or brand is not yet registered or trademarked. How safe is it to use this platform?
Hi Nkechi. yu can call me Grace.please i want to inquire if reports are maintained on us in review and monitoring of our on going performances.
Coming back now, I need to know not to go against tee-spring’s policy and standards .
Thanks a Lot.
How do I get my own score
Hey Amraoui, I’m not sure what you mean. Any questions can be directed to [email protected].
HI! Can You Please Deleted This Account Out For ME I Did Not Mean TO Make This Account Out. Thank You!
Hey, please email [email protected] for help with this!
This is wonderful news.
HELLO ……PLEASE HELP ME .I CAN’T LOGIN TO MY ACCOUNT MY MISTAKE WAS THAT I WANTED TO UPDATE THE EMAIL BUT IT WAS LOGGED OUT BY MISTAKE.I FOUND OUT LATER THAT I HAD ENTERED THIS EMAIL BY MISTAKE .SOMEONE HELP ME I’VE WORKED HARD.I DON’T WANT TO WASTE IT.TEESPRING DISABLED MY ACCOUNT.
Hello there! Oops, sorry to hear you’ve had problems here! Contact [email protected] and we’ll get you back in 🙂
PLEASE HELP ME I CAN’T LOGIN TO MY ACCOUNT .TEESPRING DISABLED MY ACCOUNT .I NEED HELP
Hey, please reach out for assistance at [email protected] and we can assist you further there!
Hi, recently I found out teespring disabled my account for some unknown reason. All my artwork is created by myself and some of them which were were owned by third party sources and they promised commercial use, I modified them aswell before using. I contacted [email protected] regarding the issue and all I got was a ticket number and haven’t got a reply since a week. I worked many days and nights to create those designs and all went away in a couple of seconds. Someone please let me know when will tspring reply or atleast tell me the reason behind disabling my account its very discouraging for young creators like me.
Hey, have you had a response yet? Sorry it’s been hard to reach us, we’ve hired new support agents and are working overtime to respond to everyone as quickly as possible. We understand the frustration, we hope you see any delay was not intentional. We’re doing everything in our power to return to our normal 24 – 48 hour response times. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Hello Moheud!
Same thing happened to me on Teepublic. On Teespring I once got a pop up message that my design was copyrighted but it just went away and my design was still there so it was probably a bug. But I am also always scared they might take down creations made on placeit.net or canva like Teepublic does…
Hi, recently my listing has been terminated two times due to content issue. But all my designs were created by myself. I did not copy the design from anywhere.
Hello there! Oops–sorry about that! Please contact [email protected] and we will get to the bottom of this for you.