TikTok Shop U.S. Updates Intellectual Property Policy
TikTok Shop U.S. updated its intellectual property policy, clarifying that unauthorized use of other sellers’ original product images may violate the rules even after AI modification.
What are the key facts?
- 1TikTok Shop U.S. updated its intellectual property policy on October 9
- 2The policy applies to sellers and creators who upload, promote, or sell products
- 3Unauthorized use of other sellers’ original product images may violate the rules even after AI modification
- 4The platform may remove products, restrict privileges, and suspend or terminate accounts
What happened?
TikTok Shop U.S. updated its intellectual property policy, which applies to sellers and creators who upload content, promote products, or sell products. The policy continues to prohibit counterfeit goods, imitation brands, unauthorized trademarks, copyrighted media, and patent infringement. It also explicitly states that unauthorized use of other sellers’ original product images may be considered a violation even if the images have been modified using artificial intelligence.\n\nThe platform may remove products, restrict shop privileges, freeze or withhold balances, cancel transactions, and suspend or terminate accounts. Some violations may also result in the cancellation of livestream auction or temporary listing privileges. Operators likely to be significantly affected include distribution-focused sellers, sellers using supplier-provided images, sellers relying on AI-generated main images or videos, and shops selling branded accessories and beauty products. The original policy also recommends maintaining records of brand authorization, image sources, design files, and purchasing documents.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
TikTok Shop U.S. updated its intellectual property policy, and unauthorized use of other sellers’ original product images may violate the rules even after AI modification. Sellers should prioritize auditing distribution listings, supplier-provided images, AI-generated main images or videos, and branded accessories and beauty listings, as violations may lead to product removal, restricted privileges, frozen balances, or account suspension.
What should sellers do now?
- 1Review the main images, detail images, and videos of every active TikTok Shop U.S. listing, replace materials whose source or authorization cannot be verified, and create image-source and authorization records for each listing to produce a traceable checklist.Listing character checker
- 2Screen AI-modified product materials in the shop and trace the original images and design files; take down and recreate all main images or videos for which authorization cannot be proven, and prepare a list of processed listings and evidence still required.Listing Optimizer
- 3For shops selling branded accessories and beauty products, organize brand authorizations, image sources, design files, and purchasing documents into product-specific folders to ensure that every active product has a complete evidence file.