As a rule of thumb I don’t allow my designs to be sold commercially. I’ve had a few people ask to license my designs for commercial production which I appreciate. I turn them down in general just because I haven’t had the time to dig into this issue much. I’m wondering… for those of you who do license your designs commercially; have you discovered any pitfalls or scams to watch out for? Is there someone with a good template for a commercial license agreement? What do you find to be a fair price for a simple non-elaborate model that maybe took you 30 mins to an hour to design?
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I find it super annoying to deal with lots of small payments, especially internationally. I usually tell people to test the market with 20 units free of charge and if they think it’s a profitable venture come back to me and I’ll sell them an unlimited license for $100/year (or more). Less than $100 is not worth the hassle in my opinion.
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I had this same issue and situation. I was researching the topic and it was not going well, then a user suggested I look into Patreon for subscription based licenses. I found this to be much easier and it gave me another platform to talk with my audience.
I had a specific model that I never intended to be sold commercially, but several people reached out to me about getting commercial license. After seeing my model show up various places being sold, I bit the bullet and set up Patreon. I did this because the honest folks that reached out wouldn’t sell my model without license, but the dishonest/ignorant folks could? Figured, might as well “help out” those that are considerate of the licensing.
I researched a bit, I just looked at other people’s commercial licenses on Patreon and worded mine around those. I filled mine with disclaimers like
“These models are intended for personal enjoyment. By purchasing a membership, you agree that I am not liable for any damages or losses resulting from the sale, distribution, or use of the 3D printed models.”
From my limited experience, Patreon is a nice platform, because they just handle things like payment, ability to mass send messages to members, place to host things, an approach that potential members already understand. Patreon takes a cut, and that is fine with me.
My attitude is this, I do this stuff for fun, my goal is not to try and make my members or myself money, if my members are able to get my models to others that would enjoy having them, but otherwise don’t have a means of getting it, then this is win/win.
This may sound petty, but the thing that bothers me the most, is when people present my models as if they were the ones that designed and created it, for some reason that just bugs me.
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Maybe licensing options next once Exclusive model program gets more established? Gosh this is getting exciting
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I was in your boat. I didn’t plan on people actually selling physical prints. But then I got like 10 requests for commercial licenses. At that point I tried to figure something out to make everyone happy.
No pitfalls so far. Only thing I can say is if people are coming to you then chances are they are honest people who want to do the right thing. So I wanted to make a license to make everyone feel good about the situation.
I couldn’t find a template and makerworld printables doesn’t have a way to allow commercial license. To keep it 3d printing centric I went with thangs. I offer a $10/month non online license. Basically no Etsy or Amazon or whereever. $25/month you can sell anywhere. I have 1 person at $10 and 4 at $25. Each person seems to pick a couple different models to sell. So they are competing most of the time. The 2 I can track sell 30-100 sales per month on Etsy at about $25-$40 a print.
Overall I think most people are happy with that. I don’t say that I promise X amount of new models per month. It’s just what I have up you can sell.
As far as a per model license I’m not sure what I would charge. I wouldnt base that price on how long it took you to design. Honestly I’d say figure out what you think is fair monthly and maybe add a couple of dollars to it. For a bunch of people this is a business and $10 isn’t much because I think they can write that off. Thangs makes you start at $10 for the lowest plan. Just fyi
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