DMCA

Last updated: October 31, 2026

Mug Mellow respects the work of artists, photographers and writers, and we expect the same respect from everyone who uses our site. This page explains how to tell us if you believe something on mugmellow.shop infringes your copyright, what a complete notice must contain, what we do when we receive one, and how a person whose material was removed can respond. It follows the notice-and-takedown approach of the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Concerns about trademarks, brand names or other rights are handled under our Intellectual Property Policy.

1. What this page covers

This page covers material that appears publicly on mugmellow.shop: product pictures, design artwork shown on product pages, banners, page text, category descriptions and any other content a visitor can see. It also covers anything we might show in future that comes from customers, such as a review photo, if we ever add that feature.

It is worth being clear about one thing that is not public. When customers personalise a mug, they send us names in the Order notes box and photos by replying to their order confirmation email. Those photos are printed on that customer’s own mug, are not shown on our website, and are deleted 30 days after delivery. If you believe a customer has sent us a photo they had no right to use, for example a professional portrait taken by you, we still want to hear about it; section 7 explains how we handle that.

2. Before you send a notice

A copyright notice is a formal legal step, and it helps to check a few things first:

• Is it copyright? Copyright protects original creative work, such as a photograph, an illustration, a pattern or a piece of writing. A brand name, a logo used as a brand or a product name is usually a trademark matter instead; please use the Intellectual Property Policy process for those.
• Is it on our site? We can only act on material hosted on mugmellow.shop. Please send the exact page addresses.
• Is the use authorised? If you have licensed the work to someone, or if the use may be allowed by law, such as a short quotation, consider that before sending a notice.
• Would a simple email do? If you just want credit or have a question, you are welcome to email us informally first. Many concerns can be settled without a formal notice.

3. What a complete notice contains

To be valid under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512), your written notice must include all of the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or of a person authorised to act on their behalf. A typed full name at the end of an email is accepted as an electronic signature.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed. If several works are involved, a representative list is acceptable.
3. Identification of the material you believe is infringing, with enough detail for us to find it, ideally the full URL of each page and a description of which image or passage you mean.
4. Your contact information: name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
6. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or are authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.

Send the notice to support@mugmellow.shop with the subject line “Copyright notice”. Written notices by post may also be sent to Mug Mellow, 8 Willard Drive, Uxbridge, MA 01569, United States, but email reaches us much faster. A notice missing one of the elements above may delay our response, and we may write back to ask for the missing part.

4. What we do when a notice arrives

Every notice is read by a person. Here is the sequence you can expect:

1. Acknowledgement: we confirm receipt within 24 hours on business days.
2. Review: we check that the notice is complete and look at the material it identifies.
3. Action: if the notice is complete and valid, we remove the material or disable access to it, and we tell you by email when that is done.
4. Questions: if something is unclear or missing, we write to you before deciding, rather than guessing.
5. Customer content: if the material came from a customer, we let that person know it was removed and give them a copy of the notice, with your personal contact details withheld where the law allows.

When material is removed, we also check whether the same image or text appears elsewhere on the site so it can be dealt with at the same time.

5. Counter-notices

If material you provided was removed because of a copyright notice and you believe the removal was a mistake or a misidentification, you can send us a counter-notice. It must include:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the material that was removed and where it appeared before removal.
3. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed as a result of a mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, postal address and telephone number.
5. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address (or, if your address is outside the United States, any judicial district in which Mug Mellow may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice or their agent.

Send counter-notices to support@mugmellow.shop with the subject “Copyright counter-notice”. We forward a valid counter-notice to the person who sent the original notice. Under the law, the material may be restored 10 to 14 business days after that, unless the original sender tells us they have filed a court action to stop the infringement.

6. False or misleading notices

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), a person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees. Please send a notice only when you are confident of your rights. If you are unsure whether a use infringes your work, it may be worth getting legal advice first.

7. Photos customers send for their own mugs

Our photo mugs, photo tumblers and pet portraits are printed from pictures our customers email to us after ordering. When a customer sends a photo, they confirm they have the right to use it, as set out in our Terms of Service. These photos are used only to make that customer’s item and are deleted 30 days after delivery. They are never displayed on our website or used in our marketing.

If you believe a customer sent us a photograph you own, for example a professional photo of a family or a pet taken during a paid session, write to us with the subject “Copyright notice” and as much detail as you can. Because these photos are not published, the usual takedown steps do not apply in the same way, but we will review the concern, stop any order that has not yet been made, and reply to you by email.

8. Repeat infringement

If we find that a customer repeatedly sends us material that infringes other people’s copyright, we may refuse further orders from that customer and close their account where one exists.

9. Examples of how notices are handled

These examples show how the process works in practice. They are illustrations, not records of real cases.

A photographer’s banner image

A photographer finds that a lifestyle photo of a mug on a windowsill, used as a category banner, is their work. They send a notice with the banner’s page address, a link to their original and both statements. We acknowledge the notice, replace the banner with one of our own placeholders, and confirm by email that the image has been removed from the site.

An illustration used in a design

An illustrator believes a line drawing on one of our breed name mugs copies their drawing. The notice identifies the product page and the original illustration. We review both, take the product design down if the notice is valid, and tell the illustrator what we have done. If the design was our own original work and we believe the notice is mistaken, we explain why and may restore the material through the counter-notice process described above.

A family portrait sent by a customer

A portrait studio learns that a client’s session photo may be printed on a mug without permission. Because customer photos are not published, there is nothing to take down from the site; instead we check whether the order is still open, pause production if it is, and reply to the studio. Customer photos are deleted 30 days after delivery in any case.

10. Why we take these steps

Most of our products exist to carry someone’s own words or pictures: a child’s name, a pet’s portrait, a couple’s photo. That only works if people can trust that their work and their pictures are treated carefully. Removing infringing material promptly, explaining our decisions and giving people a fair way to respond is part of keeping that trust, whether the person is a photographer, an illustrator or a customer.

11. Our own work

The designs, text and layout on mugmellow.shop belong to Mug Mellow or are used with permission. If you would like to use any of our content, please ask first; the rules are in our Intellectual Property Policy.

12. Contact

For copyright matters, email support@mugmellow.shop with the subject “Copyright notice”. For anything else, visit Contact Us or the Help Center. Our postal address for correspondence is Mug Mellow, 8 Willard Drive, Uxbridge, MA 01569, United States.