Licensing on The Pattern Cloud: What You Need to Know
Licensing terminology can vary across the textile and surface pattern design industry, which sometimes leads to confusion when setting up your pricing on TPC. This article explains exactly what each licence type means on our platform — and how it maps to broader industry terms.
Non-Exclusive Licence
A non-exclusive design can be sold multiple times to different buyers. The studio retains ownership and can continue to sell the design to other customers. Because the buyer does not receive sole ownership, non-exclusive prices are significantly lower than exclusive ones.
Within the Non-Exclusive Pricing tab, you can set three price points per design:
Non-Exclusive — standard licence allowing the buyer to use the design without exclusivity
Extended Non-Exclusive — a higher-tier licence offering broader usage rights, priced accordingly
Exclusive — an option for a buyer to upgrade to full exclusive ownership, even on a design listed as non-exclusive. Once a non-exclusive sale has been made, this exclusive option is automatically removed
📌 You decide per design whether it is offered as non-exclusive. Simply tick the Non-Exclusive box in the Upload area when uploading or editing a design.
Exclusive Licence (Full Rights Transfer)
On TPC, an exclusive sale means the design is sold once only, worldwide. Upon purchase, full rights are transferred to the buyer — the design is removed from your shop and cannot be sold to anyone else.
This differs from how "exclusive" is sometimes used in the broader industry (e.g. a time-limited or territory-specific licence). On TPC, exclusive always means a permanent, worldwide, full rights transfer.
💡 Industry note: Some designers use "exclusive" to mean a limited-period or limited-territory licence where they retain ownership. On TPC, this is not the case — exclusive = full and permanent rights transfer. If you wish to offer a time-limited or territory-specific licence, this would need to be arranged directly with the client outside the platform.
What About Buyouts?
A buyout — as commonly understood in the industry — refers to a full and permanent transfer of ownership and rights from designer to buyer. On TPC, this is exactly what an exclusive sale represents. There is no separate "buyout" category in the platform; your exclusive price is your buyout price.
If a client requests a buyout, direct them to purchase the design via the exclusive option on your site. The outcome is the same: they receive full rights, and the design is removed from sale permanently.
If you need to negotiate a custom buyout arrangement (for example, at a price different from your standard exclusive rate), this would be handled directly between you and the client outside the platform, with a manual invoice created in TPC to record the sale.
Quick Summary
Licence Type | Sold Multiple Times? | Rights Transferred? | Available on TPC? |
Non-Exclusive | ✅ Yes | ❌ No — designer retains ownership | ✅ Yes |
Extended Non-Exclusive | ✅ Yes | ❌ No — broader usage, designer retains ownership | ✅ Yes |
Exclusive / Buyout | ❌ No — sold once only | ✅ Yes — full rights to buyer | ✅ Yes (via Exclusive pricing) |
Time-limited / Territory Exclusive | Depends on terms | ❌ No — designer retains ownership | ❌ Not built-in — arrange directly with client |
Need help configuring your pricing? Visit our guide: Non-Exclusive Explained →
Still have questions? Reach out to us at [email protected] — we're happy to help.