It seems the guy has a personal vendetta against me. All his other works are just copies of cannon works from DC and Marvel movies, comics and games. I seem to be the only freelance artist he chooses to plagiarize. The guy claims to be a fan of my work but he also had the audacity to undermine me at every request to remove my works without really changing anything about the designs. I have several members of the community reaching out to me to warn me that he released another design of mine and then labels it as inspired by something else’s. Doesn’t even give me credit for the freaking inspiration. . I tried to build a rapport with him as an artist and person and thought were good and he even agreed to remove some stuff. But then a week or two later he not only put it back online but doubled down and added more designs of mine to his shop. I’m hurt and frustrated as an artist and individual. I hate that I have to be rich to protect my works.
IP Infringement
How do I report a user for infringing on my personal IPs? I’ve attempted to contact the support email and hit the report button on the individual item with proof that the designs were originated by me and have not received a reply. I have reached out to this user and he admits to duplicating my IP but states he can simply change one thing and it becomes his which is not how IP works. Now I’m not an expert at IP law but I’ve read that every designer automatically owns the copyright to their work, except for in the work-for-hire situations. There’s no need to register a copyright with the US Patent and Trademark Office like there is to get the protections that come with patenting a concept. So how can I protect my work from vultures like this that drive business away from my own listings?
Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.
Answers
Lets clear some things first (because of the other people that might have the same problem) there are two questions: 1. Are we talking about someone who downloaded/stole your 3d model and modified it in order to sell it as their own ? Or are we talking about someone who saw render/picture of your model and made model based on that render. For first thing we (community here) and cgt support need proof that model is indeed made by you wich mean that you have to provide for example full max scene with all blueprints used for building model in question (even better if blueprints are concept art made by you), material setup, layered psd for textures etc. Thief can't have those things, the only way thief can get those things is if artist lost his mind and made source files of the model available to public/buyers. From my personal experience cgt support take things like this very seriously and if you provide sufficient proof i'm sure that things like this will be resolved very quickly. As far as second thing goes, you need registered design patent in order to claim that someone copied your design. No one will take as granted any claim about design that isn't registered because anyone can claim anything. Your models and models of the person that you are claiming stole it from you wont match in any technical way wich mean that models aren't stolen, wich is the only thing that matter to the cgt support if there isn't registered design patent. Don't get me wrong, but in this case, the "other" side can also claim that you copied their design. Since you claim that is custom design made by you, you should be able to provide some concept arts, or something similar wich can proove that design is indeed yours, In plain words, 3d models are 3d models , design is design. Apples and oranges. Good luck.
Cgtrader took down the models in question. Not sure if that’s an automated reaction to a complaint until they can review the evidence or if they already reviewed my evidence and documentation. In any case its an ugly feeling to have your hard work and effort being sold by someone else as their own and having them laugh at you when you politely ask them to remove it.
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