Copyright & IP Complaints
16VIBE lets customers put their own artwork onto products. Most of them own what they upload; occasionally someone does not. If a product on this store uses your work without permission, this page tells you exactly what to send us and what we will do about it.
We respect copyright and trademarks, removing infringing items upon valid notice.
Legal notices go directly to our designated email queue for review by human staff.
Designers whose items were removed by error have a clear procedure to file a counter-notice.
Who this page is for
If your question is about an order — where it is, when it arrives, a fault — this is the wrong page. Use the FAQ or write to support instead; notices sent here are routed to a legal queue and will only slow you down.
Before you file
A notice is a legal statement made under penalty of perjury, so it is worth thirty seconds of checking first.
- Confirm the product is on this store. Many print-on-demand shops sell similar catalogues. Send us the URL on our domain — a screenshot of a marketplace listing elsewhere is not something we can act on.
- Confirm you hold the right, or are authorised to act for whoever does. Being the subject of a photograph, or having commissioned a design, does not automatically make you its copyright owner.
- Consider whether the use is actually infringing. Parody, commentary, and independent creation of a similar idea are not automatically infringement — copyright protects a particular expression, not a concept, style or subject.
- Note that we usually did not create the design. Items are made to order from artwork a customer supplied, so the fastest fix is nearly always us removing it, which is what this process does.
What your notice must contain
These are the elements a copyright notice needs under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and they are what we ask for regardless of where you are — a notice missing any of them cannot be acted on, and we will write back asking for the rest.
| # | Include |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your physical or electronic signature. |
| 2 | Identification of the work you say is infringed — a link to the original, a registration number, or a copy of it. |
| 3 | The exact URL on this store of each product you are reporting. One notice may list several. |
| 4 | Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address. |
| 5 | A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the rights holder, its agent, or the law. |
| 6 | A statement that the information is accurate, and — under penalty of perjury — that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them. |
Trade marks, likeness and other rights
The process is the same; what we need is slightly different.
- Trade mark: the mark itself, the registration number and territory, the goods or services it covers, and why the use here is likely to confuse. An unregistered mark can still be enforceable, but tell us the basis.
- Right of publicity or likeness: who is depicted, your relationship to them, and confirmation that no release was given.
- Privacy: what personal material appears on the product and how it came to be there.
- Counterfeit goods: tell us what distinguishes the genuine article, so we can judge the listing rather than guess.
Where to send it
Send the complete notice to our designated agent for infringement claims:
- support@16vibe.com
- Address
- 8105 WOODLAWN AVE, Munster, IN, United States, 46321
- Typical reply
- Within 24 hours
Put “IP notice” in the subject line so it is routed correctly. Everything else — evidence, links, your contact details — goes in the body of the message.
What happens next
We remove first and argue afterwards. That is deliberate: leaving a disputed product on sale while two parties correspond keeps producing items nobody can un-print.
If your design was removed
If you believe your design was removed by mistake or misidentification, you can send a counter-notice. It must include:
| # | Include |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your physical or electronic signature. |
| 2 | Identification of what was removed, and where it appeared on the store. |
| 3 | A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief it was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification. |
| 4 | Your name, address and telephone number. |
| 5 | Consent to the jurisdiction of the courts where you live, or where we are established if you are outside that country, and acceptance of service from the person who filed the notice. |
Repeat infringers
Accounts that attract repeated, substantiated complaints are closed. We keep a record of notices against each account, and a pattern — rather than any single mistake — is what triggers it. A notice that is withdrawn, or defeated by a counter-notice, does not count against the account.
False and abusive claims
Filing a notice you know to be false is not free. Under US law a person who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing is liable for the damages and legal costs the other side incurs, including ours. Comparable provisions exist elsewhere.
We refuse notices that are plainly an attempt to remove a competitor, and we tell the reported party when we do. Using this process for anything other than a genuine rights complaint is a misuse of it.
This is not legal advice
This page describes our internal process. It is a summary, it is not legal advice, and it does not exhaust your rights — you can pursue a claim in court whether or not you use this process. If your claim matters to you, talk to a lawyer before filing.
Nothing here waives any defence available to 16vibe, and acting on a notice is not an admission that infringement occurred.
Contact
Complaints, counter-notices and questions about this process all go to the address in section 5. For what customers themselves promise about artwork they upload, see the Terms of Service.