Category: Protecting Designs

If your Spring listing was deactivated, it may have violated one or more of our policies, including our Terms of Service, Intellectual Property Policy, or Acceptable Use policies. You can find Spring’s policies here: www.spri.ng/policies/spring-terms-of-service

Your listing may have been disabled if it included one or more of the following: 

• A trademark or logo that belongs to someone else;
• Proper names, logos, or other intellectual property belonging to a professional or collegiate sports team;
• Lyrics, artwork, names, and/or designs related to any musical act;
• The name or likeness of any celebrity or fictional character;
• Any content from a television show or a movie (characters, places, artwork etc);
• Someone else’s design or other copyrighted work; 
• The name or logo associated with branches of the United States Military or the military of another country; 
• Content that advocates hate, violence or harassment; or
• Content that is misleading or constitutes false advertising.

If you’re not sure why your listing was removed, you are welcome to write to us at policy@spri.ng. Please check all your remaining listings to ensure your other content is not in violation of our policies. Repeated violations of our policies may result in termination of your account. 

What happens to my listing now?

If a listing is disabled due to policy violations and you relaunch a listing with the same content, your account may be terminated under our repeat infringer policy.

My listing was deactivated and I don’t think it violates any of the reasons above.

If you believe your listing was deactivated in error, please see “Who can I contact to learn more about why my account was disabled / listing was deactivated?” below. 

What happens if more than one of my listings was deactivated?

If you have had multiple listings deactivated, you may be in violation of our repeat infringer policy. Multiple violations of our policies can result in account termination.

What happens if my account is disabled?

Once your account is disabled, you are unable to login to your account and access any of your listings. Any disabled accounts will immediately lose access to pending funds or payouts within their Spring account. 

The only way to access pending funds is to successfully get your Spring account reinstated through Creator Support. 

Who can I contact to learn more about why my account was disabled / listing was deactivated?

Questions regarding listings or account disablement should go to our team at creatorhelp@spri.ng. This includes:

• Inquiring as to why a listing was deactivated
• Inquiring as to why an account was disabled
• Requesting an account/listing be re-enabled

When contacting our team, please include your Spring account email and the listing URL (if you’re contacting us about a deactivated listing). Please note, we aim to review and answer all emails within 1-2 business days, however, response times may take longer during peak and holiday seasons. When your email is successfully sent, you will receive an auto-reply email.

What happens if I own the rights or have permission to use a particular trademark or copyright?

If your listing was deactivated and you received a copy of the third-party complaint in the email notification, please file a counter-notice here.

If your listing was deactivated and you did not receive a copy of any third party complaint in the email, but you believe you are authorized to use the content in question, please email policy@spri.ng and provide us with documentation or the reason for your authorization.

If you have permission to use registered works, you may notify our team by contacting policy@spri.ng before using your design. Please include proof of permission and your Spring account email.

If you believe that removal of your content is the result of a mistake (for example, that you have authorization) or misidentification, send us a counter notice through our Counter Notice Form.

Such counter notice must provide the following information:

1. An electronic or physical signature of the intellectual property owner or person authorized to act on behalf of the owner;
2. A description of the content which we have removed, including the URL on which the content was located on the Spring site;
3. Your address, telephone number, and email address;
4. A statement by you that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court, San Francisco County, California, United States and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification described above or an agent of such person;
5. A statement by you that, under penalty of perjury, you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;
6. A description of the factual and/or legal reasons why you believe that the material should not have been removed
7. Electronic documents, links, images or URL which support your claim (i.e. trademark registration information, copyright registration information, proof of your prior use, etc.)

In order to expedite the process all counter notice claims must be submitted via our Counter-Notification Form (linked above).

If we receive your counter notice, but your work does not comply with the Spring Terms of Service, IP/Publicity Rights Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and/or any other Spring Policy, we may inform you that we are not be able to reinstate your work. We may also request further information from you in order to determine whether the work can be reinstated.

If we determine that we are able to reinstate your work, we may forward your counter notice directly to the complainant, which will include your personal contact information. At that time, the complainant may take legal court action against you in the United States. If, after 14 days, the complainant has not taken legal action against you, you may contact us to request that we reinstate your work. If your work otherwise complies with our User Agreement and IP/Publicity Rights Policy, we may reinstate your work at that time.

The IP Claim Form is available for creators who would like to report infringement on their artwork or other intellectual property. Please be advised that by submitting this form, you are swearing under penalty of perjury that you own the rights to the intellectual property in question and that you are acting under a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized. There may be legal consequences for submitting a false IP claim. 

Your claim may be forwarded directly to the alleged infringer, and the infringer may submit a counterclaim. We strive to respond to all IP claims and counterclaims within 1-2 business days. Once we have reviewed your case, you will be notified of the outcome.

In order to expedite the process, all IP claims must be submitted via our Notice and Takedown Report Form. In the event you have technical difficulties with the form, please reach out to policy@spri.ng 

How to file a claim

When filing an IP claim, your complaint must include the following important information:

1. An electronic or physical signature of the intellectual property owner (or agent authorized to act on behalf of the intellectual property owner; 

2. A description of the matter claimed to have been infringed; 

3. The URLs identifying where the claimed infringing content is located on the Spring site. URLs should be in the following form: https://teespring.com/[campaign];

4. Your address, telephone number, and email address;

5. The date you first created the work;

6. The date and manner in which you first made the work public or used the work in commerce;

7. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law;

8. A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that:

• the above information is accurate; and you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the rights involved; and

9. Electronic documents, images or links to URLs establishing the following:

• A copy of the work
• The date you first created the work or used the work in commerce
• The date and manner in which you first made the work public
• Any other documents or information supporting your claim (i.e. trademark or copyright registration information, proof of ownership/authorization to act, etc.)

As a space for creators to thrive and succeed with their unique ideas and designs, Spring takes intellectual property very seriously. We comply with intellectual property laws and industry best practices in order to maintain the integrity of our platform. We review notices of intellectual property infringement and counter-claims, and will follow up with requests for additional information as needed.

You can read more about intellectual property here: https://www.spri.ng/policies/spring-terms-of-service/intellectual-property

Or submit a claim here: https://teespring.com/policies/ip/claims/new 

Intellectual property registration

If you have a trademark or copyright registration number for your work, you can submit that information as part of your claim. If you have not yet registered your trademark or copyright you can still  file a claim, but you will need to provide proof of ownership of the intellectual property in question. Registering a trademark or copyright creates a presumption that you own it, and may therefore make it easier to protect. You can learn more about how to register your intellectual property with the US Patent and Trademark Office by visiting their website. We also consider valid registration from other jurisdictions.

IP claim form

The IP Claim Form is available for individuals or businesses who would like to report infringement on their intellectual property. Please be advised that by submitting this form, you are swearing under penalty of perjury that you own the rights to the intellectual property in question and that you are acting under a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized. There may be legal consequences for submitting a false IP claim. 

We strive to review all IP claims within 1-2 business days. Once we have reviewed your claim you will be notified of the outcome—including whether the reported content (and corresponding creators) have been removed  or an estimated timeframe in which all reported content will be removed.