Print on Demand dropshipping & Graphic designs copyright infrigment

The Free For All Lounge
#1

Hi there !

I started a Print on Demand journey on Amazon & Etsy,
for now I am getting like 10 orders a month & still growing.

I have a question, I tought maybe others persons here experienced this :

To make my designs, I inspired myself a lot from graphics made by brands or famous artists,
I am pretty sure that my designs are in infrigment with some copyrights made by big companies.
Sometimes my designs are even deleted by Etsy or my P.O.D platforms.

But after some searches, I noted that :

  • A lot of seller sells thoses same type of designs, with no copyright ( they says it is ā€œinspiredā€, ā€œfan versionā€ etc etcā€¦)
  • Their products are online & selling since long times (6 month to 4 years from what I saw)
  • They are selling a LOT
  • They are not necessaraly based in China, they are mainly in USA, so under the US law ( or maybe it is some Chineese resident that are using US accounts idkā€¦ )

I know that according to the law, design copyright infrigment can cost a lot ( revenue made by the sells of the design + sometimes penalty )
But I want to know if some of you had concrete experience of running that kind of businness for a long time and what they can tell us about that ?
Do some of you ever had lawyer, legal expert etcā€¦ contact them concerning a copyright problem ? If yes, what did they asked you ?

Per advance thank you !

#2

On a Skype chat one time someone suggested printdul and they have worked well for us.

We like being able to do a range of products. The quality is very good and service has been great.

#3

How much do you sell your t shirts and hoodies for?

I am also using printful

#4

Hey there,
since my first post Iā€™ve increased my prices as orders continue to grow,
gettin now about 150 orders a month, expanded to ebay & amazon.

I am selling 20$ a tee, 30$ a hoodie

Still looking for answers on these legal questionsā€¦
Also I am searching for the kind of company to build here in France to not loose to much money in taxes but this is soo complicateā€¦ For now I am on ā€œauto entrepriseā€ (individual) but the taxes are way too high as they are based on what transit into my bank account, not my profitā€¦
Print on demand + selling mostly in US, have no idea what is the right way to create that company

2 Likes
#5

Create a US LLC through stripe atlas. Additionally, Lawyer would walk you through PoD business model - itā€™s possible to not pay taxes, if youā€™re registered your business in US and are not a US resident. As for the print providers - iā€™d recommend trying to make your own e-commerce store through shopify and using printify/printful. The margins on $20 tees would be low , but at least the designs wouldnā€™t get deleted. Itā€™s risky , but in small quantities ( <$10k/month) it should be okay. Usually , at least for me, I have always been asked to just remove the infringed works. I have not faced any penalties, but thatā€™s just my experience.

Edit: I Donā€™t want to hijack your thread, if you have specific in-depth questions in regards to this model, feel free to message me - iā€™ll gladly help. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#6

HEY, I have a question, im going to use Stripe Atlas for LLC Company and get a Stripe account to get the payments (cause there is no Shopify payment system in Turkey),
and i heard that Stripe Atlas doesnt allow the dropshipping business types, so i want to make Print on Demand products in my store.
Do you think this is gonna be a problem for Stripe Atlas?

#7

Well, dropshipping with stripe atlas could be problematic. But I am doing PoD myself ( mostly printify and pillow profits ) and they have had no problem with that. As long as your refund rate is not too high ( above 1-2% ) , it should be okay. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#8

Thanks for the reply quick :slight_smile: So what should i tell them?
Can i say to them like;
ā€˜i have a shopify store and im making product designs with Printfulā€¦ā€™

#9

Yes. I donā€™t remember the process so clearly now ( I joined with them a while ago ) but I am 99% sure that you will need to specify your e-commerce/website business model.

1 Like
#10

so you say it is not going to be a problem with print on demand type of business,i reliefed really :slight_smile: now i can start a product designā€¦ thanks a lot :blush:

2 Likes
#11

Hey, donā€™t tell them you are doing dropshipping. Most of payment gateway processes donā€™t allow to dropshipping because of highly refund rates.

While telling about your business, Donā€™t make it complicated and Just say ā€œI sell t-shirts and pillows.ā€ No needs details.

As @qax said, be careful about refund rate. Find good sources company.

Good luck with your journey.

2 Likes
#12

okay, i will, thanks a lot :slight_smile:

#14

hi @Terre_Terre
did you find aswer to your copyright question? because I have the same problem. thanks

#15

They are all come from my country VIETNAM. They created thousands US accounts per month to do that.

#16

I ran into a similar problem with custom rug tufting.
You could use sample images with non copyrighted graphics to promote your service. The customer is responsible for sending you the design proposal and nobody ever knows what graphic you printed finally. In the invoice you just type something like ā€œcustom t-shirtā€ e.g.

#17

You Can Use Woocommerce as it is cheaper option. I Have used both of these platforms Shopify and Woocommerce and what I found is Woocommerce is a little bit complicated but arpund 12x cheaper than Shopify so you can increase your margins using Woocommerceā€¦
Thanksssā€¦