Intellectual Property Policy

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A veteran apparel shop has to be especially careful with intellectual property. The armed services, government agencies and veterans’ organizations own and protect many names, seals, emblems and insignia, and service members deserve to know that a shirt honouring them is not trading on an official mark it has no right to use. This Intellectual Property Policy explains what belongs to Proud Vet Tee, how you may and may not use it, how we stay clear of other people’s rights, especially official military marks, and how to raise a concern. Copyright complaints follow the process on our DMCA page.

At a glance

  • Our name, dog-tag logo, designs, previews and text belong to Proud Vet Tee.
  • We do not use official military insignia, seals, emblems, unit crests or rank insignia, and we do not claim any government affiliation.
  • You may share links to our pages; you may not copy our designs or content.
  • Report concerns to support@proudvettee.com; we acknowledge within 1 business day and review within 5 business days.

1. What belongs to us

The content of proudvettee.com is owned by Proud Vet Tee (trade name Proudvettee) or used with permission. That includes the Proud Vet Tee name and dog-tag-and-star logo, every product design and its digital previews, product photographs and illustrations, product and category descriptions, the text of our policy and help pages, graphics, page layouts and the site’s code. This content is protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws in the United States and in other countries.

2. What you may do

  • Browse and print pages for your own personal, non-commercial use, for example to keep a copy of our returns policy with your order.
  • Share links to our product and category pages by message, email or social media.
  • Post photos of Proud Vet Tee items you or your family own and wear.
  • Quote short extracts of our text with a link back to the page.

3. What you may not do

  • Copy, download, reproduce, print or sell our designs, or products based on them, on any other store, marketplace or print-on-demand platform.
  • Use our product previews or photographs to advertise products that are not ours.
  • Use the Proud Vet Tee name or logo, or anything confusingly similar, in a way that suggests a connection with us or our endorsement.
  • Scrape or bulk-download the site’s content with automated tools, except for normal search engine indexing.
  • Remove copyright or ownership notices from any of our content.

4. Official military and government marks

The names, seals, emblems, insignia, medals and certain slogans of the United States armed services and of government agencies are protected by law and by licensing programmes. Our approach is simple:

  • We do not reproduce official seals, branch emblems, unit patches or crests, rank insignia, badges, medals or ribbons in our designs.
  • We do not use official marks or language in a way that suggests that a product is official, licensed, approved or endorsed by any armed service, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs or any government body.
  • Where a product mentions a branch of service by name, it does so in plain descriptive text, so that a customer can find a design for a relative who served, and never as a logo or emblem.
  • We review personalization requests and decline text that would add official insignia wording, seals or claims of endorsement to an item.

Proud Vet Tee is an independent business. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, any branch of the armed forces, or any veterans’ organization.

5. Other people’s trademarks and rights

Our designs are original. We do not knowingly sell products that infringe anyone’s trademark, copyright, design right or right of publicity, and we do not use the names or likenesses of real people without permission. Names and marks of other organizations that may appear on the site in text belong to their owners, and their mention does not mean they endorse us. If we learn that a product may infringe someone’s rights, we review it promptly and withdraw it where appropriate.

6. Personalization and your responsibility

When you add text to a personalized item, you confirm that you have the right to use it. Please do not ask us to print logos, slogans or names that belong to someone else, or official insignia wording. We may decline such requests, contact you to agree alternative wording, or cancel the item with a full refund.

7. How to report a concern

Email support@proudvettee.com with the subject line "IP concern" and include:

  1. your name, contact details and your relationship to the rights owner (owner, employee, legal representative);
  2. the right you believe is affected, for example a trademark registration number, a description of the protected emblem or design, or the official programme that governs it;
  3. the URL of each product or page concerned;
  4. a short explanation of why you believe the content infringes, and a statement that the information you provide is accurate.

For copyright specifically, please use the process on our DMCA page so that your notice contains everything the law requires.

8. What happens next

We acknowledge your report within 1 business day and review it within 5 business days. If the concern is valid, we withdraw or change the product or content and confirm this to you. If we need more information, we ask before making a decision, and if we conclude that no change is needed, we explain why. Customers with unprinted orders for a withdrawn design are offered an alternative or a full refund under our Refund Policy.

9. If you find our designs copied elsewhere

Copies of small-shop designs regularly appear on marketplaces and print-on-demand platforms. If you see a Proud Vet Tee design or our product photos on another site, please send us the link. It helps us protect the work, and it helps you avoid buying a low-quality copy that we cannot support.

9a. Examples

A reunion committee wants to print our design on banners

A unit reunion organizer asks whether they can put one of our designs on a banner and a program cover. Our designs are not licensed for reproduction by default, but we are often happy to help with non-commercial reunion material. Write to us with what you would like to make; we answer every request, and if we agree, we confirm the permission in writing.

A customer asks for a branch emblem on a cap

A customer asks for a personalized cap carrying an official branch emblem. We explain that we do not reproduce official emblems and suggest a design using the branch name in plain lettering with years of service, which most customers find just as meaningful.

Another store is selling our design

A customer sends a link to a marketplace listing that uses one of our product previews. We confirm it is ours, file a report with the marketplace and thank the customer. We never ask customers to contact the other seller themselves.

9b. Photos of you wearing our products

You own the photos you take. If you share a photo of yourself or a family member wearing one of our shirts and tag us, we will not reuse it on the site or in our communications unless we ask first and you agree. You can withdraw that agreement later, and we will remove the photo from anything we control.

9c. Impersonation of Proud Vet Tee

Our only website is proudvettee.com and our only support address is support@proudvettee.com. If you see a website, social media account or email that uses our name or logo to sell products or ask for payment, it is not us. Please send us the details so we can report it, and do not enter payment information on that site.

9d. Designs that honour a specific person

Customers sometimes ask us to print a design that includes a photograph or likeness of a family member. We do not currently print photographs. When a design names a real person through personalization, that name is supplied by you for your own order; we do not use it anywhere else, and it does not become part of our catalogue.

9e. Why we avoid official insignia, even when customers ask

Many veterans are rightly proud of the specific emblem they served under, and we understand why a family might want it on a gift. We still say no, for three reasons. First, these emblems are protected, and their owners run licensing programmes with rules that a small independent shop does not meet. Second, an emblem on a commercial shirt can look like an official product or an endorsement, which would mislead other customers. Third, insignia carry meaning that belongs to the people who earned them, and we do not want our products to be mistaken for something awarded rather than bought. Our designs use words, years, stars and simple shapes instead, so that the tribute is personal without borrowing an official symbol.

9f. Our own trademarks

"Proud Vet Tee" and the dog-tag-and-star logo identify our shop and our products. Please do not use them for your own products, accounts or websites. Fair, accurate references to us, such as a review that names our shop, are of course welcome.

9g. Reporting a concern about one of our own designs

If you are a veteran or family member and feel a design comes too close to an official emblem, or uses wording that could be mistaken for an official statement, please tell us even if you are not the rights owner. We read every such message, review the design within 5 business days and change or withdraw it when the concern is fair. We would rather hear it from you than get it wrong.

10. Ideas and suggestions

We love hearing design ideas from veterans and their families. If you send us an idea, we may use it freely without payment or obligation, but we will never publish your name, your family’s names or your story without your clear permission.

11. Permission requests and contact

To ask permission to use our content, for example for a reunion newsletter, or for any question about this policy, email support@proudvettee.com. See also our Terms of Service and Contact Us.