On 2 September 2026 at 06:30 MakerWorld deleted my model “Honeycomb Cardholder” (ID 60934). A holder for playing cards. My second upload on this platform, online since before December 2023, 259 downloads, 13 boosts, three years of comments, ratings and print profiles. I found out from a notification, after everything was already gone.
The reason: a trademark complaint filed for Mattel by an enforcement agency (enforcement@convey.it). It names three marks, HOT WHEELS, UNO and MATCHBOX, and one template sentence: the marks appear “in the title of the campaign, in the description or in the 3d Model itself”. Which word, where, in my listing? Not stated. Nobody at MakerWorld looked at the model. A word search from a law firm was enough to wipe out three years of my work.
Let me say clearly what I think of the way MakerWorld handled this. It is an insult to the maker. I gave this model to this platform for free. People printed it, rated it, boosted it. MakerWorld lives on content like this. And when a law firm sends a form letter, MakerWorld does not warn me, does not ask me, does not give me one day to change a word. It deletes, and then it tells me.
There was an obvious way to handle this without destroying anything. MakerWorld has a private state for every model. Set the listing to private, and the alleged infringement is over that same second: nobody can see it, nobody can download it, Mattel has nothing left to complain about. The maker keeps his files, his description, his statistics, and can fix whatever word is wrong. Then the model goes back online. One click on MakerWorld’s side, one minute on mine. Instead MakerWorld chose the one option that punishes the maker and helps nobody: deletion. The enforcement agency did not even ask for that.
I cannot even find out what the problem is. The listing is gone. I cannot read my own description. I cannot download my own files. The one document anyone would need to check the claim is exactly the one MakerWorld removed before telling me. And in the same notice MakerWorld gives me 14 calendar days to file a counter notification, under threat of “serious legal consequences” if I get it wrong. Defend yourself, but we will not tell you against what, and we took the evidence away.
The notice offers a green Appeal button. I used it on 3 September at 01:11. This is what I wrote:
To the MakerWorld team,
on 2 September 2026 at 06:30 you removed my model “Honeycomb Cardholder” / “Honigwaben-Kartenhalter”
(ID 60934). It was my second upload on this platform, it was published before 22 December 2023,
and it had been online continuously ever since. It had 259 downloads and 13 boosts from other
users. I learned about the removal from a notification, after it was already gone.This is not about Mattel’s rights. This is about how you handled it.
- You do not tell me what the actual problem is.
Your notice says the reported designs “contain the registered trademarks in the title,
in the description or in the 3d Model itself”, and it lists HOT WHEELS, UNO and MATCHBOX.
That is three trademarks and three possible places, and not one word about which term,
in which place, in which of my listings. In the same message you give me 14 calendar days
to file a counter notification. How am I supposed to write one? I would be guessing what
I am defending myself against, under threat of “serious legal consequences” if I guess wrong.
- You took away the one document I would need.
The listing is gone. I cannot open it, I cannot read the description I wrote, I cannot
download my own files. The single piece of evidence anyone would need to check your claim
is my own listing, and that is exactly what you removed before informing me. I was never
given the chance to save a copy of my own work.The print count is a good example. I can no longer see how often this model was actually
printed, because you removed the page that showed it. On my models that figure typically
runs at roughly two thirds of the downloads, which would put it in the low hundreds here,
but I can no longer verify it. You still hold that number. I do not.
- The measure does not fit the alleged problem.
If a brand name appeared in a title or in one line of a description, that is a text edit.
It would have taken me one minute. Instead you deleted a model that had been live for nearly
three years, together with everything attached to it: 259 downloads, 13 boosts, the prints,
the ratings, the comments, the print profiles, the whole history. Nobody asked me to change
a word. Nobody warned me. Nobody gave me a deadline to fix it. Deletion was your first step,
not your last.Consider what that means in practice. A listing that had been public since before December 2023
was taken down overnight on the basis of a complaint I am not allowed to see in detail, about
wording I am not told, in a model I can no longer open.
- A printed card holder is not a die-cast car.
The model is a holder for playing cards. It does not reproduce anyone’s product, packaging,
logo or artwork. If your concern is that a common game name appears somewhere in the text,
then say so, and say where, and let me remove it.What I expect from you:
- Name the exact wording you object to and where it appears: title, description, images
or model files.- Give me access to my own upload. At minimum, the model files, the description text
I wrote myself, and the statistics of that model.- Restore the model once the objected wording is removed. I will change any term you name,
the same day.- Suspend the 14-day counter-notification deadline until I have received the information
above. That clock cannot reasonably run against me while you withhold what I would need
in order to answer.I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking to be told what I did wrong, and to keep
access to work that is mine. After nearly three years online, I have neither.Regards,
Sebastian (cforms)
The answer came at 03:43: “this channel is not authorized to handle such matters”. Write to copyright@makerworld.com instead, within 14 calendar days of the takedown. So the appeal button inside the takedown notice leads to a team that is not allowed to handle takedowns. The clock kept running while I waited for that.
This is not a single case. In April a whole wave of Hot Wheels related models went the same way, see “They will delete the models and not give a chance to fix the word HotWheel” (They will delete the models and not give a chance to fix the word HotWheel). In March creators asked to be allowed to fix a listing before it gets deleted, see “Allowing us to rectify the uploads that were taken down” (Allowing us to rectify the uploads that were taken down). Both threads have no reply from MakerWorld. MakerWorld does not answer here. It does not answer in the appeal. It answers with a form letter that sends you to another address.
What I want from MakerWorld, in public, because the private channels have not worked:
- Name the exact wording you object to and where it appears: title, description, images or model files.
- Give me access to my own upload: the model files, the description text I wrote, and the statistics of that model.
- Restore the model once the objected wording is removed. I will change any term you name the same day.
- Stop the 14-day counter-notification clock until I have received the information above.
- Change the process. Private first, always. A deletion only after a human has looked at the model and the maker has had a chance to fix it.
A printed card holder is not a die-cast car. If the word UNO or Hot Wheels stood somewhere in my text, that is a one-minute edit. Deleting three years of history over one word, without a warning, without naming the word, without a way to get my own files back, shows what MakerWorld thinks of the people who fill this platform.
If your models got hit by the same wave, reply here. The more cases are visible in one place, the harder they are to ignore.
Sebastian (cforms)
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