Pattern licence and ownership

In plain EnglishYou own the patterns you make here. Sell them, print them on things, use them for clients, keep the money. You don't owe us a royalty or a credit, and that's true on the free plan as well as the paid ones.

Who owns a pattern I create?

In plain EnglishYou do. We don't take a share of it and we don't claim it back if you stop paying.

As between you and Rule29, you own all rights in the pattern output you generate, together with any files you download. We assign to you whatever rights we might otherwise hold in that specific output. We retain ownership of Pattern Lab itself — the engines, templates, palettes, code and interface — none of which you receive rights in beyond using the service.

Can I use it commercially? Sell products? Use it for clients?

In plain EnglishYes to all three. Etsy, print-on-demand, packaging, fabric, wallpaper, a client's brand rollout — all fine. No unit caps, no royalties, no attribution.

You receive a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free right to reproduce, modify, distribute, publicly display and sell the output, on physical goods and in digital media, alone or as part of a larger work, including on behalf of a client. You may sub-license the output as part of a delivered work product.

The one thing you can't do:

• Resell the pattern as a pattern asset — uploading our output to a stock, template or digital-asset marketplace as a downloadable design file competes directly with the service itself. Putting it on a mug, a book cover, a bolt of fabric or a client's website is exactly what it's for.

Is free-tier output different from paid?

In plain EnglishNo. The licence is identical. Paid plans buy you more of it — more generations, more exports, larger batches — not better rights. Nothing you download is watermarked.

What if I generate a pattern from a logo I don't own?

In plain EnglishThat one's on you. We can't tell whose logo it is, so we take it on trust that you have the right to use it.

You warrant that you own or are licensed to use any logo, mark, image or artwork you upload, and you indemnify us against claims to the contrary. A pattern derived from a third party's mark may still infringe that party's rights even though you own the pattern output — our licence grants you our rights, and cannot grant you theirs.

Is my pattern exclusive to me?

In plain EnglishNo, and we'd rather say so now than have it be a surprise later. The engine is shared. Two people who pick the same style and similar colours can end up with patterns that look alike, and neither of you has a claim against the other or against us.

Output is generated from shared templates, engines and palettes. We make no representation of uniqueness, novelty or exclusivity, and we grant no exclusivity in any style, template or parameter combination. Where you want a materially distinctive result, edit the output — your own colours, your own logo, your own adjustments — which is also the strongest basis for any rights you later want to assert.

Can I trademark or register what I make?

In plain EnglishYou can try, and plenty of people will succeed — but a pattern that came out of a shared engine with default settings may be hard to defend, and registration is decided by the registry, not by us. Take advice before you build a brand on one.

Nothing in this licence prevents you from seeking copyright or trademark registration in your output or in a work incorporating it. We make no representation that any given output is registrable or enforceable, and registrability may depend on the degree of your own creative contribution and on the law of the relevant territory.

Does the licence survive?

Yes. Downgrading, cancelling or deleting your account doesn't revoke your rights in anything you already made. Deleting your account removes the files from our systems — keep your own copies. See the privacy policy for what deletion removes.

Questions

If you're about to put a pattern on a product run and want it in writing, ask us — we'd rather answer than have you guess.