TeePublic complies with the DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In short, this means that artists are free to upload any original work to the site, and 3rd party rights-holders may file a claim asking us to take a design down if they believe it infringes on their rights.
A common question in situations like this is: I created this design myself, so how could it infringe on anyone else’s rights? While you may have created the design yourself, if it references something like a TV show, popular character, logo, or brand, it’s possible the design infringes on others’ intellectual property rights. That means someone else may own intellectual property rights to some or all of the content within your design. For example, if you take a photo of a painting, you will probably own copyright in the photograph, but the painter (or somebody else) will own copyright in the painting (and you may have infringed copyright in the painting by taking a photo of it).
We don’t know why rights-holders take issue with some designs and not others, and we are not able to share why specific designs were taken down. However, your takedown notification email should cite the 3rd party rights-holder who filed the claim.
Read our full Intellectual Property Policy here.
Obligatory Yet Very Important Legal Disclaimer
Don’t be fooled by any complicated jargon. We are not your lawyer and this is not legal advice. We recommend contacting an attorney if you need an actual legal consultation. Rather, this is general information aimed at giving you the legal lay of the land. While we can’t defend you in court, we know that art and IP ownership can be murky territory; the least we can do is arm you with the right kind of knowledge to get you started.