Intellectual property rights
You, as a designer, retain all the intellectual property rights to your 3D design, including the 3D renders. Copyright protects the creator of the object. Any re-creation, whether it be 3D modeled or sculpted in clay, is a copyright infringement. On the Shapeways website, you can let other people see your work. However, you can control whether you just want to "Display to the public" or "Offer for sale to others". Neither of these settings will mean that any rights you have to this model will be transferred to the people viewing or ordering your model.
Models are always private by default. You can choose to set it to public, or offer it for sale. You can change these settings at any time.
Confidentiality
We take your privacy very seriously. When you upload a model to Shapeways, we only store the information we need to process and 3D print your model. As long as your model is set to "Private," we do not share that information outside our factories and our production partners. If you set your model to "Private," which is the default, Shapeways will not use or display your design. If you make your model "Public" and/or for sale, we may use your model and related imagery in promotions like our newsletter or take it to display at events to help promote you and the whole Shapeways community.
We are unable to sign individual NDAs.
Copyrighted content
Please note that by uploading your 3D design, you warrant that it is your original creation and not copied from any third parties. You also agree that your 3D design does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions and Content Policy.
Shapeways enables people to 3D print whatever they can imagine, which unfortunately occasionally includes things that already exist and may be covered by copyright.
We like to give our community the benefit of the doubt. If you believe that a community member is infringing your copyright with their model, please first send them an email directly using the "contact designer" button on their product page, explaining that you believe they are infringing your copyrighted design. Usually, this is enough to start the conversation and lead them to either remove or modify their model.
If you do not receive any response this way, you can then send Shapeways an official DMCA Takedown notice. Instructions for sending this document can be found under the section "Notice Take Down" on our content policy page. If you can show that you are the copyright holder in this way, we will comply and take down the infringing model.