Hey, Reader!

This has been a jam-packed summer. Multiple graduations, weddings, and milestone birthdays (including America’s 250th that my husband’s family threw a legendary party for).

At my niece’s wedding, I had an interesting conversation with the photographer about usage rights and image licensing and that sparked my curiosity about how that same logic applies to my own pattern files.

Fast forward 24 hours later. I was down a copyright.gov rabbit hole. But for good reason. Copyright questions keep popping up in my inbox, and a lot of what I see floating around is inaccurate information.

This week we're going to talk about what you already own, what registering actually adds, and one quick habit that puts a little protection inside every file you send out.

Avalon Rose Design - Briony A Touch of Whimsical Elegance Dark backgrounds can feel heavy, but this one doesn't. The cream flowers and soft sage foliage pop without shouting, and that dark, dusky, blue grounds the design with twilight calm. Organic Branching Gives It Room to Breathe This delicate, climbing floral pattern feels natural, which keeps the eye moving. Each flower cluster has its own little moment, and the unopened buds scattered between blooms add a layer of life. That kind of pacing is harder to pull off than it looks. Wallpaper, Linen Bedding, Upholstery Fabric, and Stationery This pattern lands squarely in the “elevated home goods” lane where people are willing to pay more for elegance. Imagine it on a bedroom accent wall in grasscloth wallpaper or as a linen cover for dining chairs. This is a piece a buyer can live with for years because it's not going out of style. Show them some love on IG

Design Design Inc. Strawberries and Restraint, Somehow Together Watercolor softness and pale pink raspberries keep the vivid red strawberries grounded. There is real depth here between the bold berries and the whisper-quiet florals and foliage. It's a pattern that trusts the viewer to enjoy abundance without a play-by-play. Organic Scatter with Soft Margins The scattered composition lets each berry and flower seem unique, like a real berry patch. Notice how the leaves anchor the composition at different angles so nothing locks into a grid. Nursery Textiles, Aprons, and Summer Packaging Baby bedding and crib sheets, kitchen linens and aprons, jam jar labels and food packaging, greeting cards and wrapping paper. The kind of pattern that speaks equally well to new parents and people who grow their own berries. Show them some love on IG

Carrie and the Brush - A Thousand Petals Unpretentious Wild Garden This reads like someone pressed real flowers into a scanner rather than fussed over them. The color palette is restrained enough to feel curated but loose enough to feel honest. That mix of coneflowers, lupines, and delicate blue chicory says "I picked these because I love them," not "I designed a concept." Vertical Drift, Not Rigid Rows The repeat travels down in soft, uneven columns. That softness is the whole thing. You get rhythm without the feeling of being trapped, which is harder to pull off than it looks. The varying heights and stem angles keep your eye moving without fatigue. Linens, Tea Towels, Wrapping Paper, and Stationery I’d put this print on linen curtains or bedding for people who actually garden. Cotton tea towels for the kitchen counter. Gift wrap with texture and weight to it. And greeting cards or notecards, for anyone who still likes getting mail that isn’t a bill. Show them some love on IG

Tip #1: You Already Own the Copyright — So When Is Registering Worth It?

First things first, I am a designer, not a lawyer, so don’t make legal decisions solely based on this. Also, this applies to the U.S. system, but it could be a starting point if you're in another country, so I hope you’ll keep reading regardless.

Copyright is confusing. There are so many questions and about twice as many answers (that often conflict.) Is it automatic? Do you have to apply for it? Should you hire a lawyer? What protection does it really give to designers?

Clarity is tough to come by, so a lot of us put it off, feeling vaguely unsettled.

The simple fact is: in the US, your original artwork is protected by copyright the moment you create it in a fixed form. The sketch, the finished repeat, the whole collection — you own it automatically.

So what does registering with the U.S. Copyright Office add? Legal standing.

Without a registration on file, you could bring an infringement lawsuit against them, but you can’t collect statutory damages and attorney’s fees. So unless you have deep pockets and/or like suing people for fun, it's probably not worth it.

However, if you register your copyright and then someone uses your work without permission, you can sue for statutory damages and attorney’s fees. In other words, you technically could get some sort of meaningful compensation.

If you’ve got a lot of patterns, like me, it’s overwhelming to think about the cost and time it would take to register each one. So, what I do is register collections strategically:

• collections that are earning — licensed work, steady POD income
• the group I’m pitching to a manufacturer
• anything a brand is about to put on product

Just remember, I’m a designer, not a lawyer. This is the lay of the land, not legal advice — if real money is on the table, an hour with an IP attorney is worth every penny. A table of current fees is available at copyright.gov.

Tip #2: What You Can Do About AI-Scraping

Now for the question behind the question: “But Mandy, what about AI scraping my work?”

Here’s the 2026 reality. In March, the Supreme Court declined to hear the Thaler case. That means that it left the current rule standing. The current rule is this: work created entirely by AI, with no human author, can’t be copyrighted. Human-made work like yours is still protected.

The Copyright Office is working through its AI guidance, and the scraping lawsuits are still moving through the courts. That means there are very few laws on the books and the ones that have been decided are being pressure tested. There isn't a lot us little guys can do about it.

Is AI training on your Instagram posts or your website? It's entirely possible (probable with anything Meta owns, like Instagram). Because this is all relatively new and there aren't many laws on the books yet, it can leave designers feeling vulnerable. I get it. I feel that, too.

But that doesn't mean we're helpless or at the mercy of big tech. What that means for us is that we have to protect ourselves with the tools we do have.

What you can control is simple and repeatable. A few little habits give you additional layers of protection. Mine has four pieces:

1. Keep your dated originals. The layered Procreate or PSD file with its timestamps is your receipt of authorship. Back it up somewhere that isn’t your iPad.
2. Embed copyright metadata in every file you post or pitch. That’s the tech hack below — two minutes, super easy.
3. Put a plain-language usage line on your shop and portfolio. One or two sentences: what buyers can do with your files, and what they can’t. Be clear. Don’t try to sound like a lawyer.
4. Watermark preview and pitch images with a light touch. The watermark should be enough that a screenshot isn’t a free file, but not so much that it obstructs the art.

While these things can't stop AI from scraping data, they do give our work another layer of protection.

This week: Pick one and set it up. I highly recommend #2 if you haven’t done it.

Embed Copyright Metadata For Your Photoshop Files In Less Than 2-Minutes

Metadata is an invisible label stored inside your image file. In the past, lot of designers skipped this part, me included. In the AI-age, it more important than ever to fill it in.

Here’s the Photoshop version:

1. Open your file and go to File > File Info (Cmd+Option+Shift+I on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I on Windows).
2. On the Basic tab: type your name in Author, set Copyright Status to Copyrighted, type your notice in Copyright Notice (© 2026 Your Business Name), and drop your terms-page link in Copyright Info URL.
3. Save it as a reusable template: open the File Info panel menu, choose Export, and name it. Every future file gets the same info in one click instead of five minutes of retyping.

One gotcha: if you export with File > Export > Export As, make sure the metadata option (Copyright and Contact Info) is checked — otherwise Photoshop can strip your info on the way out.

Unfortunately, Procreate doesn’t offer a copyright metadata panel like this, so your version is the light watermark plus that dated, backed-up originals folder from Tip 2.

Before you go, I'm curious to know: have you ever registered anything with the Copyright Office? I'd love to get some real stories from working designers. What did you register? What was the process like? Hit reply and tell me about your experience and it might make it in to a future Eduletter.

That's all for this week. Until next week, keep creating. 🎨

P.S. — COFFEE100 expires tonight, Thursday, July 23 at 11:59pm ET. Just a few more hours to get $100 off the Procreate Pattern Collection Masterclass OR a first-time Art Biz Audit.

P.P.S. — PatternPAL Pro has some really cool new features. I couldn't help myself. Tweaking tech makes me happy. (I know. I'm weird.) I've added a bunch of new customizations like: logo and banner overlays, a sliding crop frame, pattern rotation on all 29 mockups and more. Click here to check it out.

Aaaand whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you ⬇

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