How to use your certificate to protect your design

A certificate is a tool, and a tool helps most when you know how to use it. Here is a simple routine that takes minutes and keeps your designs safe.

1. Register before you publish

Register the design as soon as it is finished, before the first photo goes on your shop, your website or social media. This gives you the earliest possible date.

2. Keep your original file

The certificate matches your exact file. Save the original image in a safe place, and do not rename or edit it. You can also download it again from your account. A screenshot or a compressed copy has a different fingerprint.

3. Build a small proof folder

Put these together for every design:

• The certificate PDF and its number.
• Sketches, patterns, and photos of the work in progress.
• The date of your first listing or post.
• Original photos with their file details, if you can keep them.

4. Show that the design is registered

You can add the certificate number and the verify link to your records, and where it is true, to your shop or your product page, for example: “Original design, registered DC-2026-000123”. A visible note tells copiers that you keep records.

5. If you find a copy

1. Save the evidence. Take screenshots of the copied listing, with its address and the date, and note the shop name.
2. Open the platform’s report form. Search the help center of the marketplace for its intellectual property report form. Follow its current instructions.
3. Give your proof. Add your certificate number and verify link, your sketches and process photos, and your first listing date.
4. Be accurate. Report only work that is truly yours.
5. Keep a record. Write down the date of each report and each reply.

6. When there is no report form

Some copies sit on small websites with no way to report them. You can write to the website owner, to the company that hosts the site, or ask a search engine to stop showing the page. If you prefer, our Takedown help can do this for you.

Each platform and host decides on its own, and nobody can promise a result. A dated certificate with a link anyone can check is clear evidence to add to your report.

Register a design   Read the copycat guide