What happens after I report a design I think is too similar?

Minted’s review team meets biweekly to review designs submitted to the Designs to Flag for Review form. Once the review team comes to a verdict on a flagged design, we will follow up with the artist who reported the design to let him or her know what decision was made and what action will be taken. We handle cases where designs are deemed to be too similar in the following ways:

 External Infringement: If we agree that an outside entity’s piece infringes on Minted work, we contact the outside entity or company immediately to request that they immediately remove the piece in question. It’s important to note that the timeline for removing infringing work can vary widely due to differences in copyright laws for each region and country. (Note: We conduct a thorough investigation to determine whether Minted work infringes on an external party, which often includes speaking to the artist in question).

Internal Infringement: If a design or product on Minted is determined to infringe on artwork outside of Minted, we remove the design in question immediately and contact the artist. Subsequent submissions will be viewed with heightened scrutiny.

Internal Similarities: If a submission or product on Minted is deemed to be too similar to a preexisting piece by another artist, we contact the artist to let him or her know. If the design is a submission to a Minted Challenge which is still within the submission window, we allow the artist to edit the piece to differentiate it before the deadline. If the submission phase is closed, the piece is not eligible for voting or sale, and we remove the piece from the artist’s Minted portfolio. If the issue was not identified until after a Challenge closed and launched to minted.com, we retract the design and do not allow the artist to edit the retracted design.

In all cases where a Minted artist’s work is found to be too similar to another artist, we reach out to the artist to let them know, and we track all such cases. We understand that in some cases, designs can be too similar by coincidence, but we keep an eye out for artists who exhibit a pattern of creating work that is too close to other artists’. If an artist has three violations, they may no longer participate in Minted Challenges, and we may disable Minted Artist Store upload privileges.