Printing a logo on a cup: the permission you need, the registered symbol and the artwork checklist

Sending artwork to a printer looks like a production step. In law it can also be a permission step. The logos, illustrations and photographs on an event or promotional cup can belong to someone else, and a cup is a way of reproducing them and putting copies into other people's hands.

Copyright: copying and issuing copies

GOV.UK says copyright protects original artistic work, including illustration and photography, automatically: there is no application and no register of copyright works in the UK. It prevents people from copying the work and from distributing copies of it, whether free of charge or for sale. The copyright symbol is optional, and whether a work is marked does not affect the protection it has.

The statute sets out the restricted acts in more formal terms. Section 16 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 gives the owner the exclusive right to copy the work and to issue copies to the public, among other acts, and says copyright is infringed by a person who, without the licence of the owner, does or authorises another to do any of those acts. Section 17 defines copying an artistic work as reproducing it in any material form. The wording covers a person who authorises another to do a restricted act, and not only the person who does it.

Trade marks: affixing a sign to goods

A logo can be a registered trade mark. Section 10 of the Trade Marks Act 1994 says a person infringes a registered trade mark if he uses in the course of trade a sign identical with the mark in relation to goods or services identical with those for which it is registered, and adds two further tests, one for similar signs or similar goods and services where there is a likelihood of confusion and one for marks with a reputation in the United Kingdom. For the purposes of that section, a person uses a sign if, in particular, he affixes it to goods or the packaging thereof.

Whether a particular print infringes depends on what the mark is registered for and on which of the tests applies, and this article does not decide that. GOV.UK gives the practical position: you can usually get permission to use someone else's intellectual property by buying the rights or getting their permission, and using someone's trade mark, patent, copyright or design without permission is IP infringement which could lead to a fine, prison or both. The fully customisable page on this site lists sponsor logos, festival line-ups and maps among the things printed on cups. Each of those can have an owner, so it is worth having the sponsor's or the artist's permission in writing before the file is sent.

The registered symbol

GOV.UK says that when you register a trade mark you can put the registered symbol next to your brand, to show that it is yours and to warn others against using it. It adds that a UK registration protects a brand in the UK and the Isle of Man only.

Section 95 of the 1994 Act makes it an offence falsely to represent that a mark is a registered trade mark, or to make a false representation as to the goods or services for which it is registered, knowing or having reason to believe the representation is false. It deems the use in the United Kingdom of the word registered, or of any other word or symbol importing a reference to registration, to be a representation as to registration under the Act, unless it is shown that the reference is to registration elsewhere than in the United Kingdom and that the mark is in fact so registered for the goods or services in question. A logo that arrives with the symbol already attached deserves one question before it goes on a cup: is this mark registered, and for these goods.

What the design tips cover

The artwork and design service page on this site gives design tips for best results. Logos should be at 300dpi or in vector format, which it gives as AI, EPS or SVG. Artwork should use CMYK colour for accurate reproduction, extend beyond the cut line to leave bleed, have text converted to outlines to avoid font problems, keep good contrast between text and background, and stay bold and simple, since simple designs work best on curved surfaces. The paid design service provides print-ready layouts with on-screen visuals for approval and includes two sets of amendments.

The product templates page offers the GC60 pint-to-line artwork template for the pint-to-line full-colour and one-colour products, and says that other layouts are confirmed per cup type and artwork route: send the cup type, print method and quantity and the team confirms the correct file before proofing. The sample cup page says samples of standard reusable cups are free, that premium reusable coffee cups and water bottles are charged, that samples are not printed with your artwork, and that free on-screen 3D visuals of a bespoke design are included. For a cup that will pour draught beer, our guide to pint to line and pint to brim markings covers the markings the cup carries, and what the artwork says is subject to rules of its own, set out in our guide to environmental claims on cups.

Before you send the file

Three questions are worth asking. Who owns each element in the artwork, and do you have permission to reproduce it on a cup. Does any element carry the registered symbol, and is that mark registered for these goods. And is the file in the format the design service asks for. If the cups are for a client programme, the guides on tax and VAT for promotional gifts and on product safety for promotional cups cover two more questions that come with a promotional order. When the file is ready, ask for a quote or visit the artwork service.

Where this stands

This was checked on 30 September 2026. The four statute sections show no known outstanding effects. Sections 16 and 17 of the 1988 Act are in the text in force since 31 October 2003, section 10 of the 1994 Act in its text of 14 January 2019 and section 95 in its original 1994 text. The GOV.UK guides on copyright and on using someone else's intellectual property carry metadata dates in 2015. Their statement on copying and distributing copies was compared with section 16. The others taken from them, on automatic protection, the register, the copyright symbol and penalties, are GOV.UK's own and are attributed to it above.