DMCA

Last updated: November 11, 2026

Gift Ink makes couple gifts from original drawings and from photos that couples send us of themselves. Because photos are at the heart of what we print, we take copyright seriously in both directions: we do not want to use anyone’s work without permission, and we expect the same respect for our own designs. This page explains how to tell us if you believe something on giftink.shop, or a gift we made, uses your copyrighted work without permission, and what we do when we receive your notice. For trademarks, names, logos and other rights, see our Intellectual Property Policy.

1. What this page covers

This page covers any copyrighted material that appears on giftink.shop or that we have been asked to print. That includes:

• the drawings and designs on our product pages, for example the pen-line drawing of two dots, the drawn couch on the movie-night designs, or the growth-ring drawing on the five-year design;
• product pictures, page text, product descriptions and category descriptions;
• photos a customer has emailed us so that we can print them on a shirt, pillow, keychain or mug;
• any text a customer typed into a personalisation field, such as a short line or a song line they want printed.

Gift Ink sells only its own designs. There are no other sellers on the site, so every notice comes to us directly and is handled by us. The process follows the notice-and-takedown rules of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512) and works the same way for rights holders in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

2. Before you write: is it copyright?

Copyright protects original creative work, such as a photograph, a drawing, a poem or a song lyric. It does not protect a common phrase, a date, a pair of first names, or the general idea of a couple gift. A few examples may help you decide which page to use:

3. How to send a copyright notice

Email support@giftink.shop with the subject line “Copyright notice”. To be complete, your notice needs all six of the following:

1. Your physical or electronic signature, as the copyright owner or as a person authorised to act for them. A typed full name at the end of the email counts as an electronic signature.
2. A description of the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed, for example “my photograph of a lake at sunset, published on my portfolio in 2024”, with a link to where it appears if it is online.
3. Where the material appears on our site: the exact URL of each product page or page, and a description of the part you mean, such as “the drawing on the front of the mug”. If your concern is a gift that someone received, tell us anything that helps us find the order, such as the delivery country and the month it arrived.
4. Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address, so that we can reach you.
5. A statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
6. A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.

You can attach images or files that show your original work and its date. Please do not send passwords, card numbers or other sensitive information that the notice does not need.

4. What happens after we receive a notice

Every notice is read by a person at Gift Ink. This is what you can expect:

1. Acknowledgement. We reply within 24 hours on business days to confirm we have your notice. If a required part is missing, we tell you which one.
2. Review. We compare the material on our site with the work you describe. We aim to finish this review within 5 business days of receiving a complete notice.
3. Action. If the notice is valid, we remove the material from the site or stop it from being shown, and we stop offering any product that uses it. If an order using the material has not yet been made, we do not make it and we refund the customer.
4. Confirmation. We email you to say what we removed and when.

Some cases need more time, for example if the material is part of a design used on several products, or if we need to check our own drawing files. When that happens we tell you and keep you updated by email.

5. Photos sent by customers

Most of what we print comes from couples: a picture from a first date, a photo-booth strip, a holiday on the beach, the day they got their keys. Every customer who orders a photo gift confirms that they own the photo or have permission to use it, and that the people in it agree to be printed. We do not check copyright registers before printing, and we do not publish customer photos anywhere on the site. Photos are kept only to make the order and are deleted 30 days after the order is delivered.

If you believe a customer sent us your photograph, for example a picture you took as a professional photographer at a wedding, please still send a notice. We will stop any order that has not yet been made, tell the customer that the photo was the subject of a copyright notice, and share a copy of your notice with them with your personal contact details removed where the law allows. A gift that has already been delivered is in the customer’s hands, not ours, but we will tell you what we did and when.

6. Counter-notification

If you are the person whose material was removed, and you believe that was a mistake or that you had the right to use it, you can send a counter-notification. A photographer who gave you the files, a family member who took the picture and is happy for you to use it, or a photo you took yourself are common reasons. Email support@giftink.shop with the subject “Counter-notification” and include:

• your physical or electronic signature;
• a description of the material that was removed and where it appeared, or the order it was part of;
• a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith that the material was removed by mistake or because it was misidentified;
• your name, postal address and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your address (or, if you live outside the United States, any judicial district where Gift Ink may be found) and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice.

We forward a valid counter-notification to the person who sent the original notice. Under the law, the material may be restored in 10 to 14 business days after we receive the counter-notification, unless the person who sent the notice tells us they have started a court action. If your order was paused, we will email you about your options, which always include a full refund.

Timeline of a notice

Two examples

A wedding photographer writes to say that a couple sent us one of the photos from a wedding she shot, and the couple’s package did not include print rights. If the order has not been made, we pause it, tell the couple, and ask whether they can show permission or would prefer a different photo or a refund. The photographer hears from us what we did.

An illustrator writes to say that one of our drawings looks very like a piece in her shop. We compare the two side by side with our own drawing files and dates. If our design is too close, we remove it from every product page that uses it and stop it from being printed again, and we tell her so. If we believe it is our own independent work, we explain why and invite her to reply with anything more she would like us to consider.

7. False or careless notices

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), anyone who knowingly makes a material misrepresentation in a notice or a counter-notification can be liable for damages, including costs and legal fees. A couple’s own holiday photo, a common phrase such as “one year down”, or a date written as numerals is not someone else’s copyrighted work. If you are not sure whether your rights are affected, you may want legal advice before you send a notice.

8. Repeat infringement

If the same customer repeatedly sends us material that infringes someone’s copyright, we may refuse their future orders and close their account.

9. Our own designs

The drawings, phrases and layouts in the Gift Ink range are our own work. If you see one of our designs, our product descriptions or our page text copied onto another store or marketplace, we would be grateful if you told us by email with a link. Our Intellectual Property Policy explains what you may and may not do with our content.

10. Things we cannot do

• We cannot give legal advice about whether something is or is not an infringement.
• We cannot remove material from other websites, only from giftink.shop and from orders we have not yet made.
• We cannot share a customer’s private details, address or order history with you, except where the law requires us to.

11. Contact

For copyright matters, email support@giftink.shop or write to Gift Ink, 2248 Rugby Row, Madison, WI 53726, US. Email is faster: we reply within 24 hours on business days. For anything else, visit Contact Us. See also our Terms of Service, which explain what we will not print.