Lock in your work before the world — or a collaborator — sees it.
Prove what you made — and what you contributed — before the story changes
Disputes over creative work don't always start with theft. They start when a collaboration falls apart, a client rewrites history, or a co-writer disputes what they contributed. By the time it matters, it's too late to create a record. PriorMark timestamps your work the moment you submit — before it's shared, before the session ends, before anyone's story has reason to change.
Creative disputes take many forms — contested credits, royalty disagreements, collaboration breakdowns, clients claiming they developed a concept independently. What they share: they all turn on who can prove what was created, when, and by whom. Courts, arbitrators, and negotiating tables all look for contemporaneous evidence — session files, demos, drafts with verifiable dates — that predates any disagreement. Without it, disputes reduce to competing accounts of events. A forensic timestamp created before the work leaves your hands provides an independently verifiable anchor that doesn't depend on memory, testimony, or anyone's version of events.
Common scenarios
A fashion designer finalizes a collection's technical drawings, pattern files, and concept sketches and timestamps them before sending files to a production partner. When the partner later releases nearly identical pieces under their own label, the designer's ledger record — predating the production agreement — establishes exactly what existed and when, providing a documented foundation for a copyright or misappropriation claim without relying on the production contract alone.
A graphic designer creates brand identity work for a client pitch and stamps the files before sending them over. The client later claims the designs were their own concept developed independently. The designer's ledger record — timestamped before the pitch — provides documented grounds to contest the claim before it reaches litigation.
A songwriter co-writes a composition and stamps the demo and lyrics before the collaboration dissolves. When the other party releases the song and disputes the writing credits, the timestamp establishes exactly what was created and when — before any disagreement arose.
Real Cases — when the proof wasn't there
These cases turned on the ability to prove independent creation and document a creative timeline. A forensic timestamp wouldn't guarantee a different verdict — but it would have changed the evidentiary foundation entirely.
Photographer Patrick Cariou spent six years documenting Rastafarian communities in Jamaica, publishing the work in a book called Yes Rasta. Artist Richard Prince used 41 of those photographs in his 'Canal Zone' series at Gagosian Gallery — painting over and enlarging them — without permission or payment. The district court initially ruled for Cariou and ordered Prince's unsold works destroyed. The Second Circuit reversed most of that ruling in 2013, finding 25 of the 30 works transformative enough to qualify as fair use. The remaining 5 works settled privately. Prince's series had sold for millions. Cariou's six years of original work had no meaningful legal protection against appropriation by a more commercially prominent artist.
Had they used PriorMark
A timestamped ledger record of Cariou's original photographs — dates, locations, and file fingerprints — would have established irrefutable documentation of the full scope and sequence of his prior work. It wouldn't have changed the fair use analysis, but it would have given him a far stronger evidentiary foundation from which to negotiate — and made the extent of what was taken impossible to dispute.
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors of Holy Blood and Holy Grail (1982), sued Random House claiming Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code copied the central architecture of their work. Brown had to demonstrate that his research and creative development were independent — relying on personal notes, his wife's research documents, and draft manuscripts to reconstruct a creative process years after the fact. The UK High Court ultimately ruled in Brown's favor, but the case took two years and required extensive reconstruction of how and when his ideas developed.
Had they used PriorMark
A timestamped record of Brown's research notes, chapter outlines, and draft manuscripts would have established an independently verifiable creative timeline on day one — rather than a two-year court battle and millions in legal fees spent reconstructing a creative process from personal records.
How PriorMark helps
Stamp before you share
Lock in your creation date before the work leaves your hands. Once it's out, you can't prove when it started — but a ledger record can.
Your work stays private
Only the fingerprint reaches the ledger. Your sketches, manuscripts, and design files stay private until you choose to share them.
Proof that predates any copy
A timestamped record predating any claim is independently verifiable evidence — no intermediary required.
See Artists & Creators pricing options.
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Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice. A PriorMark forensic timestamp is evidence of prior possession — how it is used in any specific dispute, copyright proceeding, or licensing negotiation is a question for a licensed attorney. See legal context →
