# [TL;DR](/article/what-is-tl-dr)

Talk to [Zazzle](https://zazzle.com/).


# Our content source

Most of the products you see advertised here are found primarily on [Zazzle's website](https://zazzle.com/). You can report any violations to us but it would be largely redundant.

To let Zazzle know of an infringement, click the "Shop at Zazzle" button on any product page:

![Image](29353cff-1418-4bc9-b435-6853a206f204)

That takes you to Zazzle's website. Down near the bottom of that product detail page you will find a "Report this design" link:

![Image](d9d4eee9-41ba-475d-8007-0b3bf9eb221d)

You'll get a chance to explain your claim:

![Image](3027299e-eaf3-41a9-b8d8-ed3640273ead)

You can still contact us as well. We can at least hide an offending product here if you provide reasonable evidence of your property. But we do not communicate with Zazzle on your behalf. If you work with Zazzle to protect your IP rights then this site will most likely reflect changes in Zazzle not long afterward.


If you are an IP rights holder then here's what you need to know about reporting violations of your IP rights

How to report copyright and trademark violations

# [TL;DR](/article/what-is-tl-dr)

Trademarks enable companies and individuals like you to protect their brands from counterfeiters.


# Table of Contents

- [Caveat emptor](#caveat-emptor)
- [Scared to create](#scared)
- [What is a trademark?](#what-is)
- [What can be trademarked?](#what-can-be-trademarked)
- [The PANTONE color question](#pantone-color)
- [The robots descend](#robots)
- [Learn more](#learn-more)


# Caveat emptor [#caveat-emptor]

The following is a very superficial introduction to trademarks. I am not a lawyer. I am not an intellectual property rights expert. I'm a programmer and artist. Please keep this in mind as you read on. Some of the details here could be wrong. Take this as a layperson's perspective.


# Scared to create [#scared]

I'm writing this because a lot of Zazzlers are afraid that they will be punished by Zazzle or possibly sued by some big corporation with deep pockets if they include some images or text in their products or in describing them. Sometimes it's obvious why when you see some Zazzlers straight up copying Mickey Mouse or Spider Man into their products. But often it hits us out of the blue when we get a note from Zazzle that an intellectual property (IP) rights holder asked them to take down a product of ours.

After talking to quite a few Zazzlers it became apparent to me that many don't actually understand what the problem is and are scared of IP issues that are not even real. I thought it would be worthwhile to explain the basics of trademarks in particular and why they matter a lot in our work. I want to help you feel more confident in being creative and not worry so much as some do.


# What is a trademark? [#what-is]

You are a content creator. And you are trying to make money with your creative efforts. You would not appreciate it if someone stole a design of yours and started selling it on Zazzle. Right? This is where the concept of [intellectual property rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property) comes in. Most countries in the world today recognize the rights of people and organizations to have the exclusive right to profit from their creative efforts. If you invent some new product you might [patent it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent). When you paint a new design you might [copyright it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright). For the most part you have a limited hold on it before it is allowed to slip into the public domain for all to use.

A trademark is another form of intellectual property. One oriented toward protecting your good name from harm by other people. What if someone opened a Zazzle store that had the almost identical name as yours and used your logo? Wouldn't you ask Zazzle to take it down or otherwise differentiate it from yours? Why would someone do this? Probably because they want to benefit from the hard work you've done and the good reputation you've earned by pretending to be you. When you message Zazzle you are appealing to their understanding that you have a brand you need protected from this sort of abuse. That brand is your [trademark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark).

A "service mark" is essentially the same thing, but more specifically for services versus goods. Practically speaking we can just use the term "trademark" for both goods and services.

The most basic purpose of a trademark is to protect someone selling goods or services from copycats trying to cash in on their brand. That's also the purpose of the brand in the first place: so customers can choose to buy from reputable vendors. Which means that the most basic purpose of a trademark is also to protect a consumer from fraud.

Trademarks can be plain text, graphic images of words or icons, sounds, video snippets, and other things that are iconic of some commercial thing. But for this document we are going to focus solely on plain text for simplicity.


# What can be trademarked? [#what-can-be-trademarked]

Many people mistakenly think anyone can just pick any random word or phrase like "peanut butter and jelly" and claim ownership of it. That's simply not true. Try [searching the US Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO's) database](https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-information) for that. You'll see a bunch of close matches. [This one](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87326580&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch) seems to defy my claim:

![Image](b4438910-862d-4baf-a40d-943628c247f3)

But a closer inspection should make it clear why it doesn't. First off, it's marked as "dead". Here's a summary of the status of this trademark application:

![Image](bbaeabc3-b261-4fe0-9de7-c79475e1a0b8)

The USPTO is loaded with dead trademark cases like this. [Here's one trademark](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77981335&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch) that is still active though:

![Image](dbcab1cd-1002-445d-b516-8967336aaeaf)

So now you're thinking "Darn. I can't ever say 'peanut butter and jelly' without getting sued!" Nope. It doesn't work like that. Every trademark has a limited scope. What I call its "usage". In this case they've described it as "Webcasting services":

![Image](644729bf-e2d3-4183-aa0f-9e00416e03b4)

You might be asking for trouble if you tried to open a restaurant named "Peanut Butter and Jelly TV". But it's clearly in a different realm, being a restaurant. You might even have a good explanation of why this name is very appropriate and not somehow not meant to confuse people about your association with that web broadcaster. If you used a different logo, had different branding colors, and other aspects of your branding were obviously different then you might be allowed to register this identical name as its own trademark.

This narrow usage piece is very important to keep in mind. A "Bob's Garage" in Boise, Idaho is probably not going to be confused with a "Bob's Garage" in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This is also why you can typically get away with having a Zazzle store name that is the same as some other product or service company, so long as it is clearly in a different realm and not clearly trying to confuse people.

This should also illustrate one reason why you cannot simply take exclusive control of some word or phrase and deny everyone else in the world the right to use it, no matter how.

Another reason you can't do that willy nilly is that some marks (words or phrases here) like "peanut butter and jelly" are in such common use for commercial products and familiar homemade products that they are "grandfathered in". Some company would have to work hard to demonstrate why something so common should even be allowed as a trademark. Like if you sold a brand of wine named "Peanut Butter and Jelly" and were only claiming ownership of that mark in the context of alcoholic beverages.

One other reason you are limited is that you have to demonstrate that you are reserving a brand for some commercial purpose. If you started a band named "Peanut Butter and Jelly" then you had better be out there doing concerts, selling CDs, or whatever to try to capitalize on your brand. If you stop doing so then after a few years you'll lose your trademark rights.


# The PANTONE color question [#pantone-color]

The following is just my opinion and understanding. Once again I am not a lawyer. Take this with a grain of salt.

[PANTONE](https://pantone.com/) announced "Peach Fuzz" as their 2024 color of the year. There has been some discussion in the Zazzle and SHD communities about whether PANTONE has this name trademarked. To the best of my knowledge, no they have not and probably could not. I even searched the USPTO database for that exact phrase. PANTONE was not among the 41 search results.

The simple fact is that PANTONE is not selling a product named "peach fuzz". However. They do own the "PANTONE" trademark. Which means if you name or tag a Zazzle product "PANTONE Peach Fuzz" you are asking for trouble. Not because of the "peach fuzz" part though.

[Here is a little of what PANTONE has to say](https://www.pantone.com/articles/how-to/color-identification-and-control) on their own site about their trademarks:

> Pantone, Pantone Matching System, Pantone Textile Color System, Pantone Plastics Color System, PMS, the Pantone Chip Logo, the Pantone Fan Chip Logo and the Pantone Window Logo are Pantone LLC’s check-standard trademarks for color standards, color data, color reproduction, and color reproduction materials, and other color-related products and services, meeting Pantone’s specifications, control, and quality requirements. Written permission from Pantone’s Licensing and Trademark Department is required prior to reproduction or digital display of a Pantone Color with trademark and/or copyright identification or use of Pantone’s trademarks for any color-related products or services.

They aren't claiming ownership of any color names. They are claiming ownership of brands of products and services they sell. Like the logo for their system of color-matching "fan strips":

![Image](54df0788-f8ca-4f16-8782-a936774df3f4)

PANTONE's fan strips may themselves patented:

![Image](ebcd7ab4-6824-4f06-825c-dc342cd3e4b6)

This is a good example though of just how jumpy some Zazzlers can get about what can and cannot be claimed as a brand for some person's or company's use.


# The robots descend [#robots]

One key reason I focus here on textual marks is that that's how companies find us. It's very common for the holder of some IP rights to pay a third party company to do their [brand management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_management) for them. Those companies use Google and other web spiders to seek out references to their brands. Then they manually review them looking for cases of infringement. They are likely to be very liberal in encouraging takedown requests via Zazzle and other sites.

You may wonder why a trademark holder would be so picky about your use of some brand of theirs. One reason is legal in nature. If you do not take action to defend your trademark then you can lose your trademark over time. If someone were to challenge your right to some trademark in court, they would need to show that they at least reached out to notify you of a violation and possibly even took some more formal legal action.

The artist, company, or other brand owner may not even care personally about a minor infringement. But if they don't act like they care about their brand in this legal sense, they can lose their trademarks. So. Often it's really not personal.


# Learn more [#learn-more]

To learn more about trademarks, consider perusing the [USPTO's trademark site](https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks). Wikipedia's [article on trademarks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark) provides a decent history and summary of the essential concepts.


Learn the basics of what trademarks really are and how you can use words and phrases in your work even when they seem to be trademarked

What are trademarks?

![Image](e32aee70-a97c-4a14-bc07-c5e1b6c0976d)

SHD HAS HIT A MILESTONE! In less than a month since launching on April 8, 2024, we now have 100 stores on our humble little site, featuring an eclectic array of designs for weddings, graduations, humor, nature, artistic expression, and so much more. 

BIG THANKS and shoutouts go to Lisa Hilton, creator of the [Happy Zazzling Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/364847206245351) and content creator for many SHD videos; Suzy LeeLo, creator of the [Hey Zazzlers Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/heyzazzlers) and [Julie Villani](https://www.facebook.com/julie.villani.3) for encouraging many of their followers and fellow Zazzle designers to sign up with SHD!

Want to see how SHD can help you improve your store visibility and help you advance on your Zazzle journey (with many cool store management tools and features like Design Grouping Suggestions, Niche Explorer, and Social Media Image Templates)? 
Join us on the [SHD Discord page](https://discord.gg/4A3yYkJFwe) for the latest announcements and answers to your questions, like the [SHD Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/SnuggleHamster/) to be in the know, and sign up on the [SHD site](https://snugglehamster.com/) today!

100 Zazzle Stores Have Found a Home on SHD!

We've Hit a Milestone! 100 Zazzle Stores Have Found a Home on SHD

- [What does this site offer for social media posting?](#what)
- [Basic sharing](#basic-sharing)
- [Creating a social media post](#create-post)
- [Sending your post to the target SM site](#sending)
- [Create a pin by hand from your new post](#create-by-hand)
- [More than one post per product](#multiple-posts)
- [Why save my SM post?](#why-save)
- [Register your agency with Pinterest](#register-pinterest)


# What does this site offer for social media posting? [#what]

[Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/) is the main go-to site for many Zazzlers looking for a place to promote their products. [Facebook](https://facebook.com/) and other social media (SM) sites afford similar opportunities.

You probably have figured out that just "pinning" a link on Pinterest (or other SM site) to your Zazzle product is not likely to get you much mileage. We offer you image templates and tools to help you craft better SM posts. And the ability to have more control over how people experience and interact with them and ultimately your products.


# Basic sharing [#basic-sharing]

You and your customers can already do basic SM sharing from your product's public page using the "Share" tool:

![Image](0f566588-e897-4f19-b7e4-d03c49a56757)

And from your Product > Settings page too:

![Image](8e00d83f-d3d4-4f56-be80-6bec94769d84)

This works and is like sharing from Zazzle directly. You don't have to create custom SM posts or do any other work to have at least something.


# Creating a social media post [#create-post]

If you want a more customized SM post beyond the one available by default then start by getting to one product's "Product settings" page and switching to the "Social media" tab:

![Image](52cc73f4-6468-496b-a92a-52fbb2f2d673)

There's a friendly tip with convenience buttons to encourage you along. But generally you're going to use the "New post" button in the toolbar to create new SM posts. Your product can have [as many as you choose](#multiple-posts).

When creating your post you first need to decide what the target social media site is. For this demo we'll create a Pinterest pin:

![Image](c75fd101-19c3-4e13-9383-4917a8b6bfb7)

Then you need to choose an image template. We already have quite a few to choose from. Some are simple multi-image with text layouts. Others feature rich framing images that you can adjust the colors of and lots of teaser text you can edit. Here we'll choose the 4th one in the list.

This one has a slot for one image. So your next step is to choose one from the ones available for this product:

![Image](e8624c72-3792-470f-bdc2-e27628f6168c)

To do so you just sort the source images by dragging and dropping them into the order you want. First image in the sort order goes into the first image slot. Second into the second. And so on. Any beyond what the template consumes gets ignored.

You can even add more images from the clipboard or upload them from your computer:

![Image](72b8e062-1b62-4b24-9395-065760936c28)

Once you've chosen which image to use with this one-image template you can move on to choosing a basic color variant and editing the parameters:

![Image](6058b218-91ff-44a7-b824-365f8f2d016d)

In this case the template designer has offered two color variants to help you get started. Here's what the rendered images look like when you choose each:

![Image](35cee0e0-91b6-46f6-bcfd-064058588669)

But you are free to choose other colors by editing the parameters one by one. Along with the text and other parameters too.

![Image](64c74b93-8e23-4248-974f-eea0946931e9)

For each source image the template uses you have an optional offset value:

![Image](cd696a0d-a162-4544-afab-03a6fea29a70)

Most of our templates expect square images. And Zazzle deals almost exclusively in square images. This offset will do nothing in that case. But if there is a mismatch in the aspect ratio, your image will be clipped to fit the image space. This offset can help you "slide" the image within that space to make the most of the cropping.

Below all of this is a preview of your rendered image:

![Image](0f0906ef-4eb8-4be5-b2a7-28bf9807b654)

If you have a sizable laptop or desktop machine to work with, you might benefit from clicking the "Popout" checkbox to see it in a separate browser window you can move to a second screen:

![Image](97c9f0d7-e64c-4a1c-85a7-499e78f0db68)

If your template is designed to produce a partially transparent image you can use an alternate color background to experiment with how the transparency looks:

![Image](dd6b95fd-afab-441c-98cf-ff0eab2b7872)

The rendered "preview" is actually the final image. You can copy or download it directly like with other web images:

![Image](bfdad8be-da4d-4b2a-8b4b-4f378ab92bb2)

There are convenience buttons to copy to the clipboard or download the file to your machine.

You may find it useful to collapse sections as you finish with them. It's nice that you can get back to them. But nicer to just get them out of your way:

![Image](7a64d9dc-b747-4016-a25e-78e840a628a3)

At this point you could just use the image you generated for whatever purposes. Or you can continue forward by drafting some descriptive text to add to you SM post. There are convenience buttons for inserting content from your product's own texts. For example:

![Image](c8b28f11-0e3a-42a5-996b-3b216948fb5e)

You're almost done. Time to save your post on our site. You can give it a name if you want. If you don't then the name of the SM site ("Pinterest" in this example) will be used instead.


# Sending your post to the target SM site [#sending]

It was necessary to save your post on our site before you could send a copy to Pinterest or some other SM site. See below for why this matters. But now you're ready to move on. Click "Send saved post to Pinterest":

![Image](47f8b371-a087-4c42-b9d7-c670e5195752)

This opens a new tab at Pinterest. It's up to you to decide where you want to post it:

![Image](533b2c1a-295f-4097-b7c0-a022928e5228)

Pinterest in particular will then give you a confirmation screen:

![Image](a81abe54-0f0c-4c0a-84b5-0f99219b4fe8)

And then you can go see and edit it:

![Image](6a869f8d-a6e8-4ba4-8495-090642518f41)


# Create a pin by hand from your new post [#create-by-hand]

The "Send" button is a useful convenience. But it's not always ideal or even useful. Instagram, for example, requires you to create your post by hand. In that case you have to save the rendered image and upload it on Instagram by hand.

In the case of Pinterest you can get some additional benefits by hand-crafting your own pin. Take advantage of the "Copy" button to grab the link not only to your product, but also to this post you've created and saved:

![Image](df97ad1f-cc31-44d1-bfb8-7f0fec04fe56)

Then go visit Pinterest and start creating your "organic pin" starting with the URL you copied:

![Image](61437408-1c7b-40af-a45a-4d23d9146274)

![Image](8dfd652f-77a6-4114-af97-f9a8a0dde2a9)


# More than one post per product [#multiple-posts]

You can create as many SM posts as you like for any given product. Even for the same SM site:

![Image](251caf11-7273-482c-b601-0d8dbf107728)


# Why save my SM post? [#why-save]

You can use this tool just to generate images using the template engine and download them. But there are distinct benefits to saving your posts. One is that you can come back later and modify the settings you used to render the image without having to start from scratch.

If you save your post then you have a distinct URL to point to that represents your product, of course. But it also represents your SM post. To the casual visitor it just looks like your product page. But to Pinterest and other SM sites the content is slightly different. Hidden metadata on the page reinforce the post text and point the SM site to the image you rendered instead of the default product image.

Beyond these reasons, we can track linkovers better. When the URL that the SM site has contains the SM post ID we can associate any clicks to this site with the proper post. So you can know better which of your posts someone responded to.


# Register your agency with Pinterest [#register-pinterest]

Pinterest gives greater priority to pins you create to your own website than to other sites ("created" versus "saved"). To facilitate that we recommend you [register your agency](/article/how-to-claim-ownership-of-your-agency-and-stores-here-on-pinterests-website) and all of its pages on Pinterest.


Learn the basics of creating a new social media post using our templates and your own product details and then get it on Pinterest or other SM site

How to create and share social media posts

I've deployed another significant back-end improvement that I've been working all day on. I'm now starting to properly import and store product type definitions from Zazzle. Until now, you've seen product types reflected as "Zazzle blank product" in the editor:

![Image](7656f74c-592f-4f43-8ed8-f11d3c81e832)

Of course, you can click the button on the right to see that page on Zazzle:

![Image](fdeee049-2d2a-4baa-986b-428d8c6889fe)

The improvement is the construction of a master list of all the product types I'll encounter: preview image, singular and plural names, description, etc.

This will soon get used in a variety of ways. Improved displays of your products, better searches, sales reports groupings, etc. 

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

Constructing a Master List of Zazzle Product Type Definitions

Deployment of Proper Import and Storage of Product Type Definitions from Zazzle

04/17/2024:

I've deployed a new feature that lets you search for and edit all your private notes:

![Image](44ffd582-6748-4138-a50c-a0ce4f84d5a4)

I'll refer to this generally as the My account > My notes page
Here's a great example of how I could have used this new feature this morning:

![Image](43a9e947-d3b2-45b3-bccf-cb41935b12aa)

I had taken that note previously:

![Image](b788046d-4476-4520-b7a3-8c2f65e45409)

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

Search and Edit All Your Private Notes Easily

Deployment of New Feature That Lets You Search for and Edit All Your Private Notes

04/17/2024:

Those of you who still have Basic (as opposed to Premium) agencies can now use a simplified preview version of the Niche Explorer. Here's what it looks like:

![Image](50fbc94a-92b0-4f4f-8c06-f725298e13a7)

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

Looking for New Niches? Even Basic Agencies Can Now Use a Simplified Version of the Niche Explorer

Deployment of Significant Update: Basic Agencies Can Now Use Simplified Preview Version of Niche Explorer

04/18/2024:

I've spent some time over the past couple days, focusing again on SEO. I'm proud of what I've built and the progress we've made along the way. But I discovered some minor speed bumps that have gotten in the way. I'm deploying yet another fix related to that now. Here are some of the fixes I've made recently that should significantly improve SHD's SEO:

1.) Our master site index had some technically invalid XML that 
was throwing Google off.

2.) Our 301 funnel redirects from not quite right URLs (eg http://www.snugglehamster.com/ to https://snugglehamster.com/ ) were a little flaky in a way Google doesn't like.

3.) Search page was returning some results with "null" in the URLs that were throwing Google off.

Just these three minor changes should make Google a lot happier.

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

Dramatically Improving Search Engine Optimization for SHD

Deployment of Fixes to Dramatically Improve SHD SEO

04/20/2024:

The new personalization feature is live now. Here's what it looks like:

![Image](74cbb92e-b35d-4e9b-8397-bf3c8d04a255)

Note that when you expand the personalization panel the custom images go away and only the RLV in-situ images show in the preview and carousel. Minimize if you don't want to deal with personaliation but want to see all the images.

![Image](918b1079-0ee2-4937-8cf1-2e0a7c200d0f)

As part of this I got rid of the old "Zazzle" tab on the product editor page:

![Image](9daac8c1-c2c3-47e6-b0fe-bb954c732b52)

If you were wondering, that was a prototype that I made early on to learn how to properly apply Zazzle's Create-A-Product API.
On that note, the URL for the "Shop at Zazzle" button is technically different when you do personalization. Has to be for that API.

![Image](f2cc1c40-c60d-42ad-ba5c-07e15c69df40)

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*


Deployment of New Personalization Feature

04/19/2024:

I've deployed an improvement to take advantage of Zazzle's own product (blank) types. Here's an example: the "More from this store" section of a product view page now favors the top 7 items of the same exact type. The rest will just be from the same store of any time. If there aren't 7 same-type products from that store, then the rest will be from that second list (up to a total of 14). In this example, the product is a button. So the top 7 are all buttons from that same store. 

![Image](c42d3180-38fe-4b53-8de3-21059121a6e2)

This may not seem like a big deal, but odds are good the customer poking around is looking for more designs of the same product type.

Here's another subtle example. The search engine now includes the singular and plural names for product types as searchable text for products. In this example, "tank tops" will still match products that only have "tank top" (singular) in their names, tags, etc.

![Image](0f53ddc1-0658-43cd-851a-c7659a755164)

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

Leveraging the Power of Zazzle Product (Blank) Types

Deployment of Improvement to Take Advantage of Zazzle Product (Blank) Types

04/21/2024:

I've deployed an exciting new feature. On the Store > Products page, you'll now see a new section that helps you create new design groups quickly and easily with automatic suggestions:

![Image](6643aca4-b2d9-4c8c-8a16-0e401752ade1)

I'll need to add some help documentation soon. But it works pretty well. The tool searches your store's product list  to find groups of mostly the same-name products. It does not examine the images to detect similarity of design. But in my testing, I've found that most of us tend to use the same names for our various products with same designs and just let Zazzle add the product type indicators to the end for us. This tool taps into that.

This won't be a perfect solution for everyone, of course. You may have some stragglers with different names. But you can always add those products one by one to the appropriate designs afterwards.

One feature high on my to-do list is a tool to merge two designs into one. That will be a good way to deal with cases where you accidentally create two or more design groups for the same actual design.

This should vastly accelerate your early setup process, once you complete your initial import of products for each store.

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

New Design Grouping Suggestions Feature is Live!

Deployment of Exciting New Design Grouping Suggestions Feature

04/22/2024:

I realized there is already a way to merge designs together. The "To design" button already does merging, in essence.
You can select a mix of designs and loose products and use "To design" to merge them all into one new or existing design:

![Image](991409c8-2331-4ae2-adfe-8ad047b080b3)

In this sloppy example I just copy the name of one of the designs and paste it into the "Name" text box:

![Image](555b57ef-5420-40b2-b166-4f34e83619f7)

When I click "Add all", this will just add the first design's members to the second one's and delete the first design record.
I was testing this out in a local developer's copy of the data with one of our larger stores. It was very cool how quickly I was able to create a bunch of new designs. Some of them were chopped into two or more designs, because names were not consistent. But it was easy to use the "To design" button to merge those designs together.

This is so much faster than trying to craft collections on Zazzle.

I will admit that I took one shortcut in my testing though. I did not bother adding custom cover images for the designs I hastily constructed in my dev database.
This is an example of where this feature recommended two different designs because the products' names differed:

![Image](373bf08f-a93c-459a-bacd-8ec2c8d06cec)

These are typical examples of suggested designs:

![Image](bfce9f07-aae3-4b5b-9a29-5e08b2c2b3d6)

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*


Deployment of Fix to Merge Designs Together Quickly and Easily

04/24/2024:

I just deployed a minor improvement to the Royalty History report, which was showing the mnemonic codes for product types (under product names). I've modified that to show the friendly names, and also added the original product types in cases of design transfers like these:

![Image](8e2e5f8d-b051-4422-8832-b7ee63167316)

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

Friendly Names Will Now Appear on Royalty History Reports

Deployment of Friendly Names to Royalty History Report

04/24/2024:

I'm deploying a change that relates to product dating. I made a mistake early on when I started importing products: I back-dated the product table's creation dates to not be when the record was created (which is conventional practice with databases), but instead, the Zazzle product creation date. It was a bad idea to take that shortcut, instead of adding another table column so I could store both dates. Well, I'm remedying that now.

Going forward, product imports will still grab Zazzle's create date. But I'll also retain the true SHD record creation date too. For general display purposes, I'll still be showing Zazzle's product original date. But there are some special cases that matter to all of us here. Like seeing the products you most recently imported in order of import. It gets confusing when you just imported a product you created years ago and it jumps right to the back of the product list.

I'll ask you all to let me know if you notice any odd behaviors that you think may arise from this change. This is the sort of change that often causes bugs. One unfortunate reality I'll have to face is that I have lost the actual record creation dates for all past products. So I'm probably going to just set those to some artificial start date (like 1/1/2000).

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

SHD Product Creation Date and Zazzle Creation Dates Will Now Be Added to Each New Product Profile

Deployment of Change to Product Dating

04/24/2024:

I 've deployed a minor improvement to the Royalty History uploader. The "Download from Zazzle" button is still the same hyperlink, but I think some users assumed that they needed to perform an extra step. 

I wanted to clarify that this is a slightly more convenient way to get straight to the place on Zazzle where you download the CSV file. Otherwise, there's no change to the functionality.

![Image](984f8762-759a-4404-b295-08deb7de2bbd)

*Posted on behalf of Jim Carnicelli*

Adding Clarity to the Royalty History Uploader

Deployment of Minor Improvement to Royalty History Uploader

![Image](ef169ec6-cdf1-4e5d-8049-1321510da897)

Joining the ranks of notable trademarked terms like "Baby on Board", "Bananas", "Very Peri", "Smiley Face", "Save the Earth" and "May the Fourth Be With You" (to name a few) is "Shabby Chic."

That means that you can't use "Shabby Chic" as a tag on your products (I think I just heard a collective groan of disappointment). If your products haven't already been deleted by the Zazzle Content Management Team, change all instances of "Shabby Chic" in products that use the term as a tag, title, or part of the description. Or batch hide them all first and then update them at a less frenetic pace.

It's always a good idea to check with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office. Hopefully, this will save you a lot of pre-design grief (post-design grief is a different matter). https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-information

One would think the USTPO is the final authority on such matters. But I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of gray areas. I don't think Pantone has trademarked every one of its color names (I'm still ticked off at them for "Mediterranean Blue" and "Ocean Blue". You'll excuse the pun if I say that those color names don't hold a lot of water with me. I think that travel agencies would agree with me, too). 

zPro Silver (and higher) Designers can follow the conversation in the Zazzle Community forum here: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/pro-silver-private/so-anyone-with-the-term-shabby-chic-in-title-description-or-tags/td-p/146340

Everyone can check out this helpful link, which talks about the difference between copyright and trademark:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/general-zazzle-discussion/copyright-versus-trademark/m-p/59080#M7747

I'd Like to Say It Isn't So, But Shabby Chic Has Joined the Ranks of (Trademarked) Tags That You Can't Use Anymore

Shabby Chic is Now a Trademarked Term!

![Image](80be23cf-78b2-40b6-809f-23bf346c5717)

The newest products to join Zazzle's evergrowing portfolio are here: laser-etched bamboo cutting boards are now available at Zazzle in 3 sizes. Watch the video on the first link below and get more details on their design and care:

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-news/new-product-launch-etched-bamboo-wooden-cutting-boards/ba-p/146853#M198

Sound off on these new additions here (psst -- the feedback list is long and getting longer!! As quasi-alternatives to Zazzle's glass cutting boards, Zazzlers have plenty of constructive comments on these newest wooden, er, grass-based ones):

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/general-zazzle-discussion/creator-feedback-for-our-new-product-etched-bamboo-chopping/td-p/146854 

Commemorate a Milestone with Bamboo Cutting Boards -- Now Available in 3 Sizes on Zazzle.

Laser-Etched Bamboo Cutting Boards Now Available on Zazzle!

![Image](e2d97182-0652-4002-b185-65c3580612be)

For those of you who create invitations for weddings and signage for events (among other applications) and use the fancy leading and ending character flourishes to spruce up your designs, here is the link to a collection of special characters contact sheets (for the fonts used on Zazzle that have them enabled). 

Detailed instructions for using these special characters in the text fields of the Zazzle design tool are listed in the collection description.

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/share-your-tips-tricks/latest-special-character-charts-for-script-fonts/td-p/57166

Get Fancy With Glyphs (and More) for Your Invitations, Signage, and More!

Special Character Contact Sheets for Script Fonts

![Image](55900e55-f290-4dbc-8bd3-207e429241c5)

Platinum Pro Zazzle designer LeahG has put together very helpful resources for willing your Zazzle shop(s) onto your next of kin and loved ones. Learn how to secure your Zazzle legacy and pass the torch quickly and easily with her free digital asset will template, plus take advantage of invaluable tips and tricks referenced in the links below.

These are must-read articles for every Zazzler!

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/share-your-tips-tricks/free-zazzle-will-template-and-guide-passing-the-torch/td-p/140128

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/share-your-tips-tricks/zazzle-guide-how-to-transfer-your-zazzle-store-to-heirs-upon/td-p/134601 


Ensure that Your Zazzle Shop(s) Continue to Generate a Lasting Legacy for Your Heirs Long After You Have "Left the Building."

Willing Your Zazzle Shop(s) Onto Your Next of Kin

![Image](1f221438-be4e-4402-b7f9-ea8ba9260409)

Sounds like the Zazzle LIVE design service has been (very quietly) discontinued. Alas, poor Yorick, we knew ye well ...

An unfortunate nixing for those Zazzlers who often referred customers there for custom design work that they were not able to do themselves (because cloning of humans ex vitro hasn't been invented, patented, and argued from an ethical standpoint). 

See the discussion thread on the Zazzle Community forums here:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ask-a-question/is-zazzle-live-discontinued/td-p/144255 


Pinch Yourself. Yes, It's True. Zazzle LIVE Design Service Has Been Terminated. :(

Articles