Client Used Your Design Without Paying? What to Keep and What to Do

You sent the concepts, the client went quiet, and now your logo, layout or drawings are on their website or van without an invoice being paid. This happens to freelancers, studios and architects all the time. Here is what to collect, what usually decides who owns the work, and the steps people take to get paid, in roughly the order they take them.

Disclosure: I’m Inna Hall, co-founder of TimeBinder, the file timestamping tool mentioned in step 3. This page is general information, not legal advice. For a dispute worth real money, talk to an IP or small-business lawyer where you live.

Who owns the design if they haven’t paid?

In most countries the designer owns the copyright in original design work unless it has been transferred. In the US and UK a transfer (an assignment) generally has to be in writing and signed. So a client who never signed anything and never paid usually doesn’t own your logo or drawings just because you emailed them over.

That isn’t the end of it, though. Courts can find an implied licence to use work that was delivered for a particular purpose, especially once it has been paid for. In architecture, US courts look at things like whether the contract or emails said the drawings could be used without the architect’s involvement (the Fourth Circuit’s Nelson-Salabes v. Morningside decision is often cited). Your contract, proposal and emails are what decide this, so they matter more than anything else on this page.

Freelance marketplaces have their own terms. Upwork’s terms tie the transfer of ownership to payment, and Fiverr’s help centre says rights don’t pass to the buyer on a cancelled order. Check the current terms for the platform you used.

What to collect today

• The agreement: the signed contract, proposal or quote, and any terms you sent. If there’s no contract, the emails or messages where scope, price and usage were discussed.
• What you sent and when: the exact files you delivered (the PDF, PNG or drawing set as sent), and the email or upload that carried them.
• Your working files: the layered source files, sketches, rejected concepts and earlier versions. A copier usually has the final export and nothing behind it. For logos specifically, see how to prove a logo or vector file existed before a date.
• Invoices and reminders, with dates.
• The use: screenshots of the website, social posts, signage or listing showing your design, with the URL and date visible. Save a copy in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine too, so there’s a third-party capture.

Don’t edit these files. Copy them into one folder and work on duplicates.

Step by step: getting paid or getting it taken down

1. Re-read your contract. Check what it says about ownership, licences, payment terms and cancellation. If ownership only transfers on full payment, say so in writing.

2. Send a clear, polite final invoice. Many disputes end here. Point out that the work is in use, attach the invoice, and give a date.

3. Date your evidence. Put the delivered files, the source files and a zip of your screenshots into one TimeBind, so you have verifiable evidence that those exact files existed no later than today. Files are hashed in your browser at app.timebinder.io and never uploaded. One TimeBind holds up to 10 files, so zip a big folder and keep that exact zip. Re-saving a file changes its fingerprint, so keep untouched copies. For capture tips and limits, see screenshot timestamping.

4. Offer a licence fee. If they want to keep using it, a retroactive licence or a buy-out of the rights at a stated price gives them an easy way to say yes.

5. Send a formal letter. State that you own the copyright, that no licence was granted or that it was conditional on payment, what you want (payment, or that use stops) and by when. In England and Wales this is a letter before action.

6. Use the low-cost routes. In the UK, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has a small claims track for claims up to £10,000. In the US, the Copyright Claims Board handles claims up to US$30,000, but you need a registration or a pending application first. A plain unpaid-invoice claim can also go to an ordinary small claims court.

7. Use takedowns for online copies. If the design is on a platform or website, a DMCA notice (or the platform’s own copyright form) can get it removed. Only do this if you’re confident they don’t have a licence.

Next time, date the work before it goes out. Our guide on protecting a design before sending it to a client covers that routine, and design file timestamping explains which files to include.

Which plan fits

The free plan gives you 1 Token a month, which is one Pooled TimeBind of up to 10 files. That’s enough to date the evidence for one dispute.

If you want to date every project before delivery, a paid plan gives you more TimeBinds. Essential is US$20 a month for 5 Tokens (5 Pooled, or 1 ASAP plus 2 Pooled). Expert is US$50 a month for 15 Tokens (15 Pooled or 5 ASAP), and unused Tokens roll over. Pooled is usually recorded within 24 to 48 hours, and often sooner, depending on Bitcoin network activity. ASAP costs 3 Tokens and gets its own transaction (ASAP vs Pooled). Verification is free. See pricing.

Working in an agency team? See timestamping for agencies for dating pitch decks and concepts before they’re presented.

What a timestamp does and doesn’t do

TimeBinder anchors each file’s SHA-256 fingerprint to Bitcoin and gives you a Proof of Time Certificate. That is verifiable evidence of when a file existed: anyone can click Verify File, select the file and check in their own browser that it existed no later than the anchor date (how verification works).

It doesn’t show who made the design, it doesn’t decide who owns it, and it won’t get you paid by itself. Ownership turns on your contract and the law where you are. What it does is make your timeline easy to check, and a client who copied your export won’t have dated source files.

If you freelance across design, writing or code, our page on timestamping for freelancers shows how to keep a dated trail for every client job.

Plan details were checked against timebinder.io/pricing on 28 October 2026.