Trademark Words That Get Public Domain Listings Pulled
The art can be public domain while the words in your title aren't free to use. Museum names, brand names and some artists' names cause most of the trouble.
Quick answers
- Can a public domain artwork be trademarked?
- Copyright in the artwork can expire while a company still holds a trademark in a name or logo connected to it. The trademark doesn't bring back copyright in the image, but it can make using the name in a product title or tag risky.
- Can I put the museum's name in my listing title?
- Museum names are brands the museums use for their own shops and licensing. Putting one in a title or tag can suggest an official product. Saying where the image comes from in the description is a different thing from using the name as a selling point.
- How do I describe a public domain print without using brand names?
- Describe the work, not the brand: subject, period, medium and style. For example, 'Art Nouveau floral wallpaper design, 1890s, woodblock print' instead of a company name plus 'style'.
Copyright and trademark are different things. Copyright in a painting can run out while a company still holds a trademark in a name connected to it. Marketplaces scan titles and tags for protected words, so the words in your listing can get it pulled even when the image is fine.
The usual culprits
Museum names
The Met, the Rijksmuseum and the Smithsonian give away images, not their names. Each runs shops and licensing programmes under its own name. A title like "Official Smithsonian bird print" suggests the museum made or approved your product, and it didn't.
The fix: keep the museum out of the title and tags. If you want to credit the source, one line in the description is enough: "From an open access image in the collection of the Rijksmuseum."
Brand names that grew out of an artist's work
Some designers' names are now live brands. William Morris is the classic case: the patterns are old, but Morris & Co. is a current brand name. The same goes for Tiffany and for Liberty prints. "Morris & Co style wallpaper" in a tag is using someone's brand to sell your product.
The fix: describe the design itself. "Arts and Crafts floral pattern, 1880s" says what the buyer is looking for without borrowing anyone's name. Browse patterns for examples of how museums catalogue these.
Artists' names held by estates or companies
A few artists' names are managed as brands by estates or companies, and some are registered as trademarks for products like clothing or homeware. Frida Kahlo's name is the best-known fight. Most long-dead artists' names aren't like this, but check before you put one on a product line.
Characters and franchises
Early versions of some characters are now public domain, but the companies behind them still hold trademarks in the names and in later versions. That's why the arrival of early Mickey Mouse in the US public domain didn't make "Disney" a safe tag.
Words that promise things
These aren't trademarks, but they draw complaints and can mislead buyers:
- "Official", "licensed", "authentic museum print": unless the museum licensed you, it's not true.
- "Original": a reproduction isn't the original.
- "Copyright free": you don't know that for every country, and neither does anyone else. "Public domain in the US" or "released CC0 by the museum" is more accurate.
A quick checklist
- Title: subject, artist, date, medium. No museum or brand names.
- Tags: style words, subject words, era words. No company names, no "in the style of" plus a brand.
- Description: credit the collection and link the object page if the marketplace allows links.
- Images: don't show a museum logo or shop packaging in your mockups.
- When in doubt, search the word plus "trademark" in the register for the country where you sell.
For where the image rights come from in the first place, see How to Check if a Museum Image Is Really Public Domain.
- commercial
- merch
- licensing
- public domain