You can make Minecraft fan art for personal use and share it for free, but you cannot sell merchandise — physical or digital — featuring Minecraft's characters or brand without Mojang's explicit approval.
This analysis describes what Minecraft's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
The provision establishes a licensing framework that permits derivative creative works within defined bounds while reserving commercial merchandise rights to the IP holder. This structure allows fan engagement while maintaining control over commercialized uses of the intellectual property.
Fans selling Minecraft-themed merchandise without a formal license from Mojang risk cease-and-desist actions or IP infringement claims, even for small-scale commercial activity on third-party platforms.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Fan Art and Merchandise Guidelines and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →Monitoring
Minecraft has changed this document before.
Receive same-day alerts, structured change summaries, and monitoring for up to 25 platforms.
"You may create fan art and other fan creations based on Minecraft, but you cannot sell physical or digital merchandise that uses our IP without our permission. Fan creations must be non-commercial.— Excerpt from Minecraft's Minecraft Usage Guidelines
1) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision engages 17 U.S.C. (Copyright Act) and 15 U.S.C. §1051 et seq. (Lanham Act/trademark law) regarding unauthorized commercial use of IP. EU trademark and copyright law provides equivalent protections. Platform liability under 17 U.S.C. §512 (DMCA safe harbor) is relevant for marketplaces hosting such merchandise. 2)
Full compliance analysis
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Free: track 1 platform + weekly digest. Monitor: 25 platforms + same-day alerts. No credit card required.
Compliance Governance Intelligence
Need to monitor specific governance provisions?
Compliance includes provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, regulatory mapping, and audit-ready analysis.
Built from archived source documents, structured governance mappings, and historical version tracking.
The provision establishes a licensing framework that permits derivative creative works within defined bounds while reserving commercial merchandise rights to the IP holder. This structure allows fan engagement while maintaining control over commercialized uses of the intellectual property.
Fans selling Minecraft-themed merchandise without a formal license from Mojang risk cease-and-desist actions or IP infringement claims, even for small-scale commercial activity on third-party platforms.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Minecraft.