We evaluate each potential violation on its own merits. It's not uncommon for similar designs to appear in the marketplace. We don't presume that every time we've found a design was infringed, the infringement was intentional.
If a creative infringes on another creative’s intellectual property, a panel of our team reviews each case individually, including any history of prior violations on the offending creative’s account. Violations of Intellectual Property are against the Standards of Conduct for Creatives.
Depending on the severity of the infraction, the creative found guilty may face an account suspension for up to 90 days or even a permanent account removal.
Should a user be removed from our site due to violations, we use a number of different tools and procedures to help us make sure that they are unable to work on crowdspring ever again.
Because we evaluate each incident on its own merits, we recognize that a blanket policy might not be appropriate for all cases. We have, on occasion, acted after only one or two violations of intellectual property, depending on the circumstances. We also consider temporary suspensions, in place of outright banning, as occasionally appropriate.
In logo projects, we have a zero-tolerance policy for the use of stock art. For such violations, we remove the offending creative immediately.