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This Intellectual Property Policy explains what belongs to Koishine on koishine.com, what belongs to you when you order a keepsake, how you may use our content, how we avoid using other people’s work, and how to raise a concern about trademarks, designs or other rights. Copyright notices follow a specific legal process, set out on our DMCA page. If you are unsure which page applies, write to support@koishine.com and we will route your message.
Intellectual property in brief
- The Koishine name, the koi-and-ripple logo, our designs, product photographs and written content belong to Koishine or are used under licence.
- Your photos, names and words stay yours; we use them only to make your order.
- You are welcome to share links to our pages, but please do not copy our designs, photos or text.
- We do not knowingly print other people’s trademarks, characters or artwork.
- Concerns are acknowledged within 1 business day and reviewed within 5 business days.
1. What belongs to Koishine
The following are owned by Koishine or used under licence, and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws in the United States and in the countries where our customers live:
- the name Koishine and our logo, a single koi in a gentle curve with a ripple ring;
- the layouts, borders, lettering arrangements and artwork of the keepsake designs we offer, as shown in our previews;
- our product photographs, digital previews and illustrations;
- product descriptions, care guides, policy pages, the size guide and other written content;
- the design of the website itself, including its arrangement of pages and images.
2. What belongs to you
When you order a keepsake, the photos, names, dates, messages and handwriting you send remain yours. You give us only the limited permission described in our Terms of Service: to prepare, print, engrave and check them for your order, to remake the piece if needed, and to keep them for a short time as our Privacy Policy explains. We do not use them in our marketing, on social media or as examples without your separate written permission.
The finished keepsake is yours to keep, display and give. You may photograph it and share those photos however you like, including on social media; we are glad when you do, and you do not need to credit us.
3. How you may use our content
- View, save or print pages for your own personal, non-commercial use, for example to compare designs or to show a family member before ordering.
- Share links to our pages and products by message, email or social media.
- Quote a short extract of our text with a link back to the original page, for example in a review on your own blog.
4. What is not permitted
- Copying our product photographs, previews or descriptions to sell similar products, on any website, marketplace or social media shop.
- Reproducing our designs, or close imitations of them, to make products for sale.
- Using the Koishine name or logo, or anything confusingly similar, in a way that suggests you are us, are connected with us or are endorsed by us.
- Collecting our content in bulk with automated tools, other than normal indexing by search engines.
- Removing copyright notices or other identifying information from our content.
These limits protect the small details that make each design work: the spacing of a name beneath a photo, the weight of a ripple line, the balance of dates on a memorial plaque. They took time to get right, and we ask that they are not copied. If you would like to use our content in a way not listed above, ask us first; see the section on asking permission below.
5. Our trademarks
Koishine and our koi logo identify our shop and our products. Other names and marks that may appear on the site, such as the names of carriers or payment providers, belong to their owners and appear only to describe services we use. Their appearance does not mean those companies endorse Koishine, and our use of them does not suggest any partnership beyond what is stated.
6. How we respect other people’s rights
Our designs are created for Koishine or used under licence. Before a design is added to the shop, we check that its artwork and lettering are original or properly licensed. We do not offer designs that use sports team marks, brand logos, film or cartoon characters, or the names and likenesses of public figures.
We apply the same care to personalised orders. If the material sent for a keepsake contains a brand logo, a licensed character, or artwork that clearly belongs to someone else, we contact the customer before production and offer to make the piece with different material or cancel the order with a full refund. Common motifs, such as hearts, stars, pine branches, paw prints and religious symbols chosen by the customer for their own keepsake, are not affected.
7. Reporting an intellectual property concern
If you believe something on koishine.com, or a product we make, infringes your trademark, design right, right of publicity or other intellectual property, email support@koishine.com with the subject line “IP concern” and include:
- your name, contact details and relationship to the rights owner;
- a description of the right concerned, for example a trademark registration number and country, or a description and images of a registered or unregistered design;
- the web address of each product or page concerned, or a description of the product if it is not on the site;
- an explanation of why you believe it infringes;
- a statement that the information you provide is accurate and that you are the rights owner or authorised to act for them.
For copyright, please use the process on our DMCA page, which needs some additional statements.
8. What happens after you report
We acknowledge your report within 1 business day. Within 5 business days we review it, compare the material with the right you described and check our records. If we need more information to decide, we ask before acting rather than make a hasty decision either way.
If the concern is valid, we remove the product page or content, stop making the product, and cancel any open orders that would use the material, refunding those customers in full. We confirm the outcome to you by email. If we conclude that there is no infringement, we explain our reasons and remain open to further information.
| Type of concern | Where to report | First response | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copyright in a photo, illustration or text | DMCA process, subject “Copyright notice” | Within 1 business day | Within 5 business days of a complete notice |
| Trademark or brand name | This page, subject “IP concern” | Within 1 business day | Within 5 business days |
| Design right or product shape | This page, subject “IP concern” | Within 1 business day | Within 5 business days |
| Use of a person’s name or likeness | This page, subject “IP concern” | Within 1 business day | Within 5 business days |
| Our content copied elsewhere | Email, subject “Koishine content copied” | Within 1 business day | We follow up with the other site |
9. If you find our work copied elsewhere
From time to time, product photos and designs from small shops are copied onto marketplaces and imitation websites. If you find Koishine photos, designs or text being used by another seller, or a website that looks like ours but is not at koishine.com, please let us know with the address of the page. Purchases made on such websites are not Koishine orders and are not covered by our policies, and those websites may not deliver what they show. Our only shop is koishine.com.
10. Ideas and suggestions
Customers sometimes suggest designs, such as a new memorial layout or an ornament for a particular occasion. We welcome suggestions, but please do not send us designs or artwork you want to keep exclusive, because we may already be working on something similar. Suggestions are sent voluntarily, we may use the ideas they contain without payment, and we will never publish your name or personal information with them without your permission.
11. Asking permission
We are happy to consider requests to use our content, for example from a writer preparing a gift guide who would like to use one of our product photos, or a grief support group that would like to quote part of a care guide in a newsletter. Email support@koishine.com with the content you would like to use, where and how it will appear, and for how long. Permission is only valid once confirmed in writing, and it applies only to the use described.
12. Names, faces and the people on your keepsake
A personalised keepsake usually shows people who are part of your own life: your children, your parents, a friend who has died. That is personal use, and it is exactly what our products are for. Rights of publicity and privacy matter in a different situation: when a famous person’s name or face is used to sell something, or when someone’s image is used without their knowledge in a way they would object to. For that reason we do not make keepsakes featuring celebrities or public figures, and we will remove any material on our site that uses a person’s likeness without permission if they, or their family, contact us.
If you are ordering a keepsake that shows someone other than yourself, we trust that you are doing so with care for that person. If a person shown in a photo asks us not to print it, we will respect that request and contact the customer about a replacement image.
13. Keepsakes and personal use
Because our products carry your own photos and words, people sometimes ask whether they may reproduce their finished keepsake in other ways, for example as a printed photo of the frame in a memorial service booklet. You may: photographing and sharing your own keepsake is personal use. The only thing we ask is that our design is not copied to make further products for sale.
14. Changes and contact
We may update this policy as our range and the law change; the date at the top shows the latest version. Questions or permission requests go to support@koishine.com, or by post to Koishine, 1113 Michigan Ct, Alexandria, VA 22314, US. See also our Terms of Service and Contact Us page.