Intellectual Property Policy

Last updated: October 31, 2026

This Intellectual Property Policy explains who owns what on mugmellow.shop: our name, our designs and our pages on one side, and the names, dates and photos our customers send us on the other. It also explains what we will and will not print on a mug, why we turn down logos and characters, how you may use our content, and how to tell us about a trademark, design or other rights concern. Copyright notices for material on the site follow the process on our DMCA page.

1. What belongs to Mug Mellow

The following are owned by Mug Mellow or used under licence, and are protected by copyright, trademark and related laws:

• The Mug Mellow name and our logo, including the mug whose steam curls into a lowercase “m”.
• Our product designs: the layouts, lettering arrangements, illustrations and patterns shown on our product pages, such as the grandparent hearts layout, the birth-flower drawings, the teacher apple, the pencil row on our teacher tumbler and the marshmallow cloud on our kids cocoa mug.
• Product photographs, banners and other images on the site, once published.
• Product descriptions, category descriptions, help pages, policies and all other written content.
• The arrangement and look of the site as a whole.

A design printed on your mug is still our design, even though the name on it is yours. You own your mug, of course, and can use, gift or resell that physical mug as you like.

2. What belongs to you

When you personalise an order, you send us text in the Order notes box at checkout and, for photo designs, a picture by replying to your order confirmation email. That material remains yours. By sending it, you give us a limited permission to use it for one purpose only: to print, ship and support your order, including a replacement or reprint if something goes wrong.

We do not use your names, photos or messages in advertising, on our website or on social media. We do not keep a gallery of customer photos. Customer photos are deleted 30 days after delivery, as explained in our Privacy Policy. Names and notes remain attached to your order record so that we can help with returns and questions later.

3. Your promise about what you send

When you send us text or a photo, you confirm that you have the right to use it on a mug or cup. In everyday terms:

• Your own photos of your family, your pets and your friends are fine.
• Photos taken by a professional photographer may need the photographer’s permission, depending on your agreement with them. Many portrait sessions include personal printing rights; some do not.
• Pictures found online, such as a drawing from a website or a screenshot from a film, usually belong to someone else and cannot be printed.
• Photos of other people should be used with their agreement, especially if they are not family.

If we have reason to believe material you sent infringes someone else’s rights, we may decline to print it. In that case, we will email you to explain and offer to cancel the item with a full refund or to use different text or a different photo.

4. What we will not print

To respect other people’s rights, we print only our own designs together with your personal names, dates and photos. We will not print:

If an order note asks for any of these, we will email you rather than print it. You can then choose a change to your own words or a full refund for that item.

5. How you may use our content

You are welcome to

• View, download and print our pages for your own personal, non-commercial use, for example to keep a copy of our return policy.
• Share links to our products and pages by message, email or social media.
• Quote a short extract, such as a sentence from a guide, with a link back to the page it came from.

Please do not

• Copy our product photos, designs or descriptions to sell products elsewhere, including on marketplaces or other online shops.
• Recreate our designs, such as our layouts and illustrations, to make and sell your own products.
• Use the Mug Mellow name, logo or anything confusingly similar in a way that suggests a connection with us or our endorsement.
• Scrape or bulk-download the site with automated tools, other than normal search engine indexing.
• Frame our pages inside another site so that they appear to be part of it.

To ask for permission to use something not covered above, email us and describe what you would like to use and how. We will reply in writing.

6. Trademarks of others

Names of other companies or products may appear on our site for descriptive reasons, for example to explain that a tumbler suits a car cup holder or that a payment provider handles checkout. Those names belong to their owners. Their appearance on our site does not mean those companies endorse us or are connected with us.

7. How we respect other people’s rights

Our designs are created for Mug Mellow or used with permission. We do not knowingly sell items that infringe anyone’s copyright, trademark, design rights or rights of publicity. If we learn that something on our site may infringe someone’s rights, we review it and remove or change it where appropriate. We would rather take a design down while we look into a concern than leave a possible problem online.

8. How to report an intellectual property concern

If you believe something on our site, or a product we sell, infringes your trademark, design right or another intellectual property right, email support@mugmellow.shop with the subject “IP concern” and include:

1. Your name, contact details and your relationship to the rights owner.
2. The right you believe is infringed, for example a trademark registration number and country, or a description and images of your design.
3. The URL of each product or page concerned.
4. A short explanation of why you believe it infringes your right.
5. A statement that the information in your report is accurate and that you are the rights owner or authorised to act for them.

For copyright in photos, illustrations or text, please use the more detailed process on our DMCA page. Written reports may also be posted to Mug Mellow, 8 Willard Drive, Uxbridge, MA 01569, United States, though email is much faster.

9. What happens after you report

1. We acknowledge your report within 24 hours on business days.
2. We review the product or page and the information you sent. If we need more detail, we ask before deciding.
3. If the concern is valid, we remove or change the product or content and tell you what we did.
4. If we believe the concern is mistaken, we explain why in writing, so you can respond.

Throughout, we keep your report confidential, apart from what we need to share to resolve it.

10. Common personalisation questions about rights

Most rights questions we receive are friendly ones from customers planning an order. Here are the situations we expect to come up most often, with plain answers.

“Can I put my dog’s name next to a cartoon dog?”

The name, yes; the cartoon, no. Our breed illustration mug draws dogs and cats in our own simple line style, which gives a similar feeling without using a character someone else owns. Write the breed and your pet’s name in Order notes and we will use the closest drawing we have.

“Can I have my favourite team’s name on a mug?”

A plain word such as a city name or a nickname typed in our standard lettering is usually fine as part of your personal text. What we cannot reproduce is the team’s crest, mascot or its official lettering style, because those are trademarks licensed to approved makers. If you are unsure, ask before ordering.

“Can I use a photo from our wedding photographer?”

Check your agreement with the photographer. Many wedding and portrait packages include the right to make personal prints and gifts; some ask that you request permission first. If your agreement allows personal printing, send the photo by replying to your order confirmation email as usual.

“Can I quote a line from a song or a poem?”

Short phrases in everyday language, such as “Good morning, sunshine”, are fine. Lyrics or longer passages from songs, poems and books are protected by copyright, so we will suggest you use your own words instead. Your own words often mean more anyway.

“Can I order a mug with my business logo?”

Our shop prints our own designs with personal names, dates and photos, and does not currently print logos, even a customer’s own. If you have a business or team request, email us before ordering and we will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do.

11. Ideas and suggestions

We enjoy hearing ideas for new designs, such as a mug for a profession we have not covered yet. If you send us a suggestion, we may use the general idea without payment or credit. We will never publish your name, your personal details or your photos without asking you first.

12. Related pages and contact

See our Terms of Service for the full rules of buying from us, our Privacy Policy for how we handle your photos and notes, and the DMCA page for copyright notices. For any question about this policy, email support@mugmellow.shop or visit Contact Us.