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Canva & Your Copyrights




For those who don’t know: Canva is an online design platform that enables users to create visual content through supplied graphic elements that has gained popularity in recent years. It provides a variety of quick-use tools to aid in making digital or printable graphic and visual assets. 




Canva is often joked about among the professional design community since it’s popularity with the public domain has skyrocketed- not that it isn’t a great tool, but that it’s become a trend that people with no design training or education are claiming they are “Graphic Designers” by using the platform’s premade templates and graphic assets.


All jokes aside, this is a dangerous game to play as most people don’t realize that anything made using Canva’s premade assets is not considered original work, and Canva still retains the copyright ownership (whether you are using the free or paid version).


What does this mean? It means that the logo you threw together in Canva isn’t really yours when it comes to trademark and copyright laws. It’s similar to if you decided to use a piece of clipart you found in Word- no matter how many different elements you piece together to make a bigger picture.


Now, this is assuming the design made in Canva is taking advantage of their third-party asset libraries (i.e. elements, photos, and graphics), not importing your own original assets.


Their pre-baked templates are a great help when in a pinch and under time constraints, as well as the AI integrated to help reshape your content. Canva can be a great tool and platform to help along the way- but be weary of what you are using it for. 


HERE ARE THE BIG TAKE-AWAYS

of what to remember if you are utilizing Canva yourself, or hired a “designer” that uses it:


  1. Even on the paid plan, you cannot use the library assets (such as images) for Commercial Use. (Meaning you cannot resell anything that incorporates Canva’s assets).


  2. You cannot resell anything using Canva’s premade templates.


  3. You cannot transfer or share licensing on images, video, or elements from Canva.


  4. To move forward in production from some third-party printers, they need acknowledgement that you are the rightful owner of the content- which cannot be true if using Canva.


  5. You cannot copyright or trademark (i.e. logos) made in Canva.





If you are hiring a designer, be sure to ask what their software of choice is. Software like Adobe or Corel are safe bets that you will be getting 100% original graphics that you can own and copyright or trademark.


The other downside to using pre-made assets and text effects through their platform is that all of the designs seem to end up having the same look, making it tougher for your visuals to stand out if posting them on social media platforms.


All-in-all, authenticity triumphs every time but Canva offers some great tools to help along the way. Use it wisely! 

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