This document is a first draft, written so the site has the pages a launch needs. It has not been reviewed by a solicitor and it is not legal advice. Anything marked to be confirmed is a decision nobody has made yet.
In short
Use a pattern you have access to on as many sites as you like, yours or your clients'. Change it, rename it, build on it. Do not resell the markup itself or bundle it into a theme, template or kit that you distribute. What you have already pasted into a site stays working forever, whatever happens to your access.
Who you are contracting with
These terms are between you and JD, trading as Pattern Paste. They are governed by the law of England and Wales. Using this site means accepting them.
What the product is
A pattern is WordPress core-block markup. You copy it and paste it into the block editor, where it becomes content in your own database and takes your theme's colours, type and spacing. It is not a plugin, a theme or a hosted service, and it makes no connection back to us.
The catalogue is 157 patterns, of which 6 are free. The Pattern Paste plugin is the companion that provides the interactive blocks a small number of patterns embed. It is not sold separately and it is not a free download: it comes with catalogue access. Patterns that need it say so on their own page, before you buy.
The licence
Access grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide licence to use the markup of any pattern you have access to. Under it you may:
- Use a pattern on unlimited sites, your own or a client's, commercial or not
- Change it however you like, including beyond recognition
- Hand the finished site to a client, who may keep running it without any licence of their own
- Keep using anything you have already published, forever, whether or not your access continues
What the licence does not allow
- Reselling the markup, modified or not, as a pattern, a snippet, a block or a download
- Bundling it into a theme, plugin, template, page-builder kit or starter site that you distribute or sell, on a marketplace or anywhere else
- Building a competing library out of it
- Sharing your account or passing your access to somebody else
- Claiming the designs as your own work to sell as designs
The line is the difference between building sites with the patterns, which is what they are for, and redistributing the patterns themselves, which is our business. If what you want to do sits on that line, ask at [email protected] and we will answer plainly.
What happens when access ends
Nothing on any site you have already built. Pasted markup is your content and we have no way to reach it, no wish to, and no term here that lets us try. What ends is access to this site: you stop being able to copy new patterns and stop receiving new ones.
The Pattern Paste plugin keeps working on the sites where it is already installed, and so do the blocks it has rendered. What ends is the right to install it somewhere new.
The companion plugin
The Pattern Paste plugin is software rather than markup, so it is licensed separately and on its own terms. It is not sold on its own and it is not a free download: it is distributed to people with catalogue access, and it installs on unlimited sites, yours or your clients', like everything else here. Its PHP carries the GPL, as anything distributed for WordPress must, which is a licence on the code you are given and not an undertaking to give it to anyone who asks. A block it registers keeps a frozen contract, so a fix we ship reaches every page you have published without breaking one.
Deactivating the plugin removes the motion from a pattern that used it, and the content inside stays on the page as a plain stack. That is by design and it is stated on every pattern that needs it.
What you need to be able to do
Paste block markup into the WordPress editor, and point an image block at your own media. That is genuinely all, and there is no code to write. What we cannot do is build your site, adapt a pattern to a theme that does not follow WordPress's own preset system, or support a page builder that is not the block editor.
Patterns are tested against WordPress 6.7 to 7.0. Older WordPress, classic themes and non-block editors are out of scope.
Images and fonts
A pattern never ships a photograph. Image blocks arrive empty, exactly as the editor writes them before you choose a file, and you point them at your own media library. The photographs in our previews are licensed to us for showing the patterns and are not part of what you buy.
No pattern ships or loads a font. Type comes from your theme.
Payment
Access is a subscription, £50 a year (save £94), or £12 a month, shown on the site and charged by our payment processor at the start of each period until you cancel. Cancel from your account page at any time; access runs to the end of the period already paid for. VAT is added where it applies.
Refunds
Because access reveals the markup immediately, we cannot offer a refund once you have copied a paid pattern. Before you buy, every pattern has a live preview rendered by WordPress itself at three widths, and the free patterns are the complete, unredacted article, so you can judge the quality of the work first.
If a pattern is broken, meaning it does not render as its own preview shows, tell us and we will fix it or refund it. Statutory rights in England and Wales are unaffected by anything here.
Warranty and liability
Patterns are provided as they are. We test each one in real WordPress across the supported versions and in more than one theme, and we publish what was measured, but we cannot promise a pattern suits a purpose you have in mind or works alongside every plugin in existence.
Nothing in these terms limits liability for death, personal injury or fraud. Otherwise our liability to you is limited to what you have paid us.
Changes to these terms
We may change these terms; the date at the top says when they last changed. A change never applies retroactively to a pattern you have already used.