Feature request - accounting for rights and copyright on design upload

English Spreadshop
#1

I’m not sure why the ability to add new topics to the Feature Requests forum has been disabled? Please can an admin move this there.

I would like to suggest some way of accounting for rights and copyright on uploading a design instead of having to publish a design and then having it rejected a day or two later and then having to go through the process of looking up each design ID and sending them on to legal so that they can release the design once proof has been provided.

I understand that this isn’t foolproof as some people might provide proof but still be infringing Spreadshit’s stringent copyright rules - but it would surely make lives easier not only for us but for legal too.

For example:-
I recently uploaded my own personal logo which is a registered trademark for which I hold the copyright onto a facemask as I want a branded facemark for when I am in public. I (stupidly) didn’t think twice about the fact that it is a registered trademark!! Of course the design was rejected for copyright violation!! This is GOOD as it shows that Spreadshirt’s system of checking for copyright is WORKING and that nobody else would be able to use my design - but of course I had already placed my order for the product only to discover it was rejected the next day. I quickly resolved this with legal and they released it BUT … the next time I do another design with my logo, I’ll have to go through the whole process over again - it would be easier for everyone if I just uploaded my Trademark documents with the design OR perhaps have an area where we can upload ALL the proofs we need to for ALL future designs so that they can be held “on file” and we can just reference them.

As another example - last night I had to tediously copy the design ID’s for 11 different designs that were rejected as “rights unaccounted” - ALL of these designs were created using an online platform (Placeit - which I signed up to on Spreadshirt’s recommendation) which assigns FULL commercial rights to the designs. They are not “generic” as each design is customised by me using my own colour choices, words and slogans which is why I submitted them for marketplace. I’ve sent an email to legal with all of the design ID’s and am currently awaiting their response on this as I don’t know what proof they need from me - again, this would be easier for all if I could have indicated on upload that I hold the rights to these designs.

ONE FINAL example of where this will be useful is perhaps a business idea for fellow shop owners as I’m going to test it out myself. I am going to approach a few local businesses and offer to set them up a merchandise store on a revenue share basis. My idea is to use their copyrighted / trademarked logos on a range of designs for them to offer their customers and buy themselves for their staff to wear - some of the local businesses have a great fanbase and I’m sure branded merch would be welcome! In this case, I would need to account for rights to these designs on every occasion - it would be great to have a simpler way to do this.

Please vote / comment with your experiences, thoughts and ideas on this.

Thank you.

#2

I never received any feedback on the above and I notice that it’s not been moved into the feature requests section. I KNOW this is an issue for many of you here - it’s not just me!

As I’m sure is the same as many of you, I not only spend time and effort creating my designs but I spend even more time (and money) promoting them on social media. Tonight I went to post on Instagram and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t find my products to tag in my shop on Instagram - I went to my website to discover that the design collection I was about to promote has disappeared from my site - so I went to my partner area to discover 3 designs had suddenly been rejected for copyright violation. I have no idea whose copyright I’ve violated as they are original designs created by myself and are not copies of anything I’ve seen before - and all 3 are straight up image based designs.

So now I go through the process of sending an email to legal at Spreadshirt and wait for them to respond and then argue and then they will re-enable my designs once more after I’ve established they are indeed mine - it’s tedious!!!

There HAS to be a better way!!

Even a simple email from Spreadshirt to say “hey, we’ve finally got around to checking your design you published a week ago and we need to check you are the rights holder” BEFORE they simply go and REMOVE the design would be better and would at least give a better customer experience to all.

PLEASE can this process be considered for improvement?

#3

Hi there, we will be adding in the future notifications when designs have been removed due to copyright issues. You are right, this process needs improvements and when we do delete stuff due to copyright (even if it’s a mistake) we need to inform you in a better way. Consider this planned for the next year.

#4

Thanks for the response @Lena_Spreadshop - at least I now know that it is under consideration. My biggest request would be that either the designs are “held for review” prior to being released on our shops and marketplace - sure, I realise this will add a delay of maybe even a few days before the products are available but if properly communicated, we could all change our workflow accordingly. The review process could / should then result in the design being flagged as

  • accepted / rejected for marketplace

  • accepted / rejected for own shops (since some are rejected for marketplace but still allowed on own shops OR

  • “further information required” - which would allow the publisher to validate their rights or if they have genuinely (often by mistake) violated copyright then they would have a clear understanding of whose copyright and why its been rejected.

Many other platforms (like Amazon) follow this process so many people will already face it. This would ensure the quality and validity of the items on the marketplace and on own shops and the end experience for both the customers and the designers would be ultimately improved.

There are very few things more frustrating than running an advertising campaign on a design that has been up there for over a week only to find that it’s suddenly been deleted.

#5

This is a process we had for a long time but decided to stop since it didn’t allow to react quickly to a trend. Currently aproval process takes up to 8 days, therefore that would be way too long of a waiting time. But yes, please know that this process will be adapted with notifications.

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#6

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