Intellectual Property Policy

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At a glance

  • The Kin Folk Tee name, logo, designs, photos and site text belong to Kinfolktee or are used with permission.
  • You may share links to our pages and wear, gift and photograph the products you buy. You may not copy our designs onto other goods or sell copies.
  • We do not knowingly sell designs that use other people’s trademarks, characters, team logos or likenesses.
  • To report a concern about trademarks or other rights, email support@kinfolktee.com with “IP concern” in the subject. Copyright notices follow our DMCA page.
  • We acknowledge reports within 1 business day.

Kin Folk Tee is a small print-on-demand shop. Everything we sell starts as an idea about family life: a joke Grandpa tells every Thanksgiving, the pride of a first-time mom, the chaos of a reunion with forty cousins. Turning those ideas into artwork takes real creative work, and we protect it. We also take care to respect the rights of other creators and brands. This policy explains both sides: what belongs to us and how you may use it, and how anyone can tell us if they believe something on our site infringes their rights.

1. Our intellectual property

Unless stated otherwise, the following are owned by Kinfolktee or used under licence, and are protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws in the United States and other countries:

  • the names “Kin Folk Tee” and “Kinfolktee”, our logo (the tee with a heart) and our tagline “Wear your people”;
  • the artwork, illustrations, lettering and layouts of our designs;
  • product photographs, mock-ups, banners and other images on the site;
  • product descriptions, category texts, policy pages, emails and other written content;
  • the selection, arrangement and look of the website as a whole.

Owning a product with one of our designs gives you ownership of that physical item, not of the design itself. The design remains ours.

2. What you may do

We want our designs to be worn, loved and shown off. You are welcome to:

  • wear, gift, lend and photograph the products you buy, and post those photos on social media;
  • share links to our product pages and quote short parts of our pages with a link back, for example in a gift guide;
  • print or save a copy of a page for your personal records, such as an order confirmation or a policy;
  • resell a single item you bought and no longer want, in the ordinary way people sell used clothing.

3. What you may not do

Without our written permission, please do not:

  • copy, trace, scan or recreate our designs, in whole or in part, to print on other products or to sell;
  • use our product photos or mock-ups to sell items on another website or marketplace, including items that are not ours;
  • use the Kin Folk Tee name or logo in a way that suggests we endorse, sponsor or are connected with you, your products or your business;
  • register domain names, social media handles or business names that include our name or could be confused with it;
  • copy our written content, including these policies, for use on another store;
  • use automated tools to copy large parts of the site.
Common uses and whether they are allowed
Use Allowed?
Posting a photo of your family wearing our tees Yes, and we love seeing them
Linking to a product in a blog gift guide Yes
Using our product photo in your gift guide Ask us first; we usually say yes with a credit link
Printing our design on your own shirts for a reunion No; order from us instead
Selling copies of our designs on a marketplace No
Using “Kin Folk Tee” in your shop name No

4. Our trademarks

“Kin Folk Tee”, “Kinfolktee” and our logo are used as trademarks to identify our products. Please do not use them, or anything confusingly similar, for your own products or services. Referring to us by name in a fair, accurate way, for example in a review or news article, is fine.

5. Respecting other people’s rights

We work hard to make sure our own range does not infringe anyone else’s rights. In particular, we do not knowingly sell designs that include:

  • logos, names or colours of sports teams, leagues, universities or companies used as brands;
  • cartoon, film, television or video game characters;
  • photos or likenesses of celebrities or other real people without permission;
  • artwork or lettering copied from other designers or found online;
  • song lyrics, film quotes or other copyrighted text beyond what the law allows.

Family sayings, everyday phrases and common words are part of shared language and are used freely. Even so, if you believe one of our designs uses your protected trademark or creative work, we want to hear from you.

6. How to report an intellectual property concern

For copyright concerns, such as copied artwork, photos or text, please follow the steps on our DMCA page, which explain the information we need.

For trademark and other concerns, email support@kinfolktee.com with “IP concern” in the subject line and include:

  1. your name, organisation (if any), postal address, phone number and email address;
  2. the trademark or right you are relying on, with registration numbers and countries if registered;
  3. the URL of each product or page you are concerned about, and what you believe is infringing;
  4. an explanation of why you believe the use is likely to cause confusion or otherwise infringes your rights;
  5. a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorised by the rights owner, its agent or the law;
  6. a statement that the information is accurate and that you are the rights owner or authorised to act on the owner’s behalf;
  7. your physical or electronic signature.

Examples of reports we act on quickly

  • A registered brand owner shows that a design uses their protected logo or a confusingly similar version of it.
  • An illustrator shows their original artwork, published before our design, and our design reproduces it.
  • A photographer shows that a product image or banner on our site is their photograph, used without a licence.

Clear evidence, such as a dated link to the original or a registration certificate, helps us act faster and more accurately.

7. What happens next

  1. We acknowledge your report within 1 business day.
  2. We review the report and the material. If we need more information, we ask.
  3. Where a report is complete and credible, we remove or disable the product or content, usually promptly, and stop further production of the design while the matter is reviewed.
  4. We tell you what action we took. Where appropriate, we explain our reasons if we believe the use does not infringe.

We may share your report, including your name and contact details, with the person who submitted the content if it came from a customer, so that they can respond. We do not publish reports.

If we disagree

Sometimes a report concerns a common phrase or a design that we believe is original. In that case we will explain our view and, where possible, offer to discuss it. We are always willing to change or withdraw a design to avoid a genuine conflict.

8. Ideas and feedback

We love hearing design ideas from customers, such as a family saying you would like to see on a shirt. Please know that we may already be working on similar ideas, and we cannot promise to keep submissions confidential or to pay for them. If you send us an idea, you agree that we may use it without obligation to you. If you are a professional artist interested in working with us, say so in your email and do not send finished artwork until we have agreed terms.

9. When our work is copied

Print-on-demand designs are sometimes copied by other sellers. If you find a Kin Folk Tee design or photo on another site, please tell us at support@kinfolktee.com with a link. We take action through the platforms involved. If you bought something from a site that used our photos but did not come from us, we are sorry that happened; we can only help with orders placed on kinfolktee.com, but we will gladly confirm whether an order was ours.

10. How this affects customers

If a design you ordered is withdrawn after a rights report and the item has not been printed yet, we will tell you and refund that item in full within 7 calendar days. Products you already own are not affected, and our normal 60-day returns still apply.

11. Fan art, parody and look-alike designs

Some shops sell shirts that borrow a famous logo and swap the words, for example a sports team badge reworked with a family surname. However harmless these look, they can still infringe the original owner’s trademark or copyright, and we do not make them. If you ask us for a design like that, we will politely say no. The same goes for movie characters dressed as grandparents, cartoon mascots holding coffee mugs, or a celebrity’s face with a family joke. Our designs use original artwork, plain lettering and everyday family language instead.

12. Licensing and collaborations

We occasionally work with independent illustrators and lettering artists. When we do, we agree in writing who owns the artwork and how it may be used, and we credit the artist where they want to be credited. If a design on our site was made in collaboration, the rights in it belong to the people named in that agreement. Requests to license one of our designs for another product line, for a school or club fundraiser, or for an event should go to support@kinfolktee.com; we look at each request individually and will tell you honestly whether it is possible.

13. Reports made in bad faith

Intellectual property reports have real consequences: a product is taken down and a design may stop being made. Please only send a report when you have a genuine, good faith belief that your rights are being infringed. Knowingly false reports may expose the sender to legal liability, and we may decline to act on reports that appear designed to harm a competitor rather than protect a real right.

14. Permission requests and contact

To ask permission to use our images, designs or name, email support@kinfolktee.com with a short description of how you would like to use them. We reply within 1 business day. Kinfolktee, 208 Wynbrook Dr, Nashville, TN 37221, United States. See also our Terms of Service and Contact Us.