Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy
Intellectual Property & DMCA Policy.
This page explains who owns the content, products, and brand assets on this website; how third-party trademarks are used; and the full procedure for submitting or responding to a copyright complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Who we are and what this page covers.
This Intellectual Property and DMCA Policy is published by Aesthi Technologies Inc., the company that owns and operates The Meow Picks at themeowpicks.com. The Meow Picks is a curated, multi-brand retailer of modern designer cat furniture, smart home technology, and everyday cat accessories sourced exclusively from independent makers and studios.
This page explains in plain terms how intellectual property rights apply to everything on this website — from our original content and brand identity to the products and brand names of the third-party makers we carry. It also sets out the complete process for reporting a copyright concern under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512 (DMCA), and describes how we handle such reports from first contact through resolution.
If you believe content on this website infringes your copyright, please review the DMCA Notice section below before contacting us. We respond to every valid notice.
This policy is governed by U.S. federal law, including the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq.), the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512), and the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1051 et seq.). Aesthi Technologies Inc. is incorporated in the State of Delaware and operates from the United States.
Content we own, and rights we reserve.
Everything created by Aesthi Technologies Inc. for The Meow Picks is protected under U.S. copyright, trademark, and trade dress law. Here is exactly what that covers.
Website Content
All original text across every page of themeowpicks.com — including product descriptions we have authored, category copy, the journal, buyer guides, and how-we-choose editorial — is the original work of Aesthi Technologies Inc. and is protected by U.S. copyright law from the moment it is created, with or without a formal copyright notice.
Reproduction, redistribution, or publication of our written content without express prior written authorization is prohibited.
Original Photography & Graphics
Original photography, illustrations, SVG icons, graphic compositions, and other visual assets produced specifically for The Meow Picks are protected works owned by Aesthi Technologies Inc. Product images supplied by independent makers remain the property of their respective studios and are used under license or with authorization.
You may not download, copy, crop, or reuse any image from this website for commercial or promotional purposes without written permission.
Brand Name & Identity
The name The Meow Picks, the name Aesthi Technologies Inc., the TMP monogram, our logo mark, taglines, and the distinctive design language of this website collectively constitute the trade dress and brand identity of Aesthi Technologies Inc. These elements may be registered or common-law trademarks under the Lanham Act.
Using our name, logo, or any confusingly similar mark in commerce without written authorization is an infringement of our trademark rights.
Source Code & Design System
The HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Liquid code developed for The Meow Picks storefront — including custom sections, animations, and the design token system — is proprietary work product owned by Aesthi Technologies Inc. Our Shopify theme customizations are not licensed for reuse, resale, or reproduction.
Automated scraping, crawling, or extraction of site code or content for reproduction is prohibited.
What you may do without permission: You may share a link to any page on themeowpicks.com on social media, personal blogs, or editorial content for non-commercial purposes, provided no content is reproduced verbatim and the link clearly identifies the source. Brief quotation for the purpose of commentary or review that qualifies as fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107 is permitted — see the Fair Use section below for guidance.
Maker brands on this site, and how we use them.
The Meow Picks is an independent, multi-brand retailer. The product names, studio names, and brand identities of the makers we carry belong entirely to those makers. We use their marks lawfully to identify the goods we sell.
Brands and maker names currently represented on this site include, but are not limited to: MiaCara, Sophisticated Scratch, Catastrophic Creations, Labbvenn, Nooee Pet, Fable, PurrFriendlyLitter, and other independent studios. All product names, brand names, logos, and associated trade dress referenced on product pages remain the exclusive intellectual property of their respective owners.
Our reference to these brands constitutes nominative fair use under the Lanham Act: we use maker names solely to identify the specific products we retail, not to suggest endorsement, sponsorship, or formal affiliation between those makers and Aesthi Technologies Inc., unless such an arrangement is explicitly stated on the relevant product page.
We do not manufacture, counterfeit, or misrepresent the origin of any product listed on this site. Every product is sourced directly from the maker or an authorized distributor. If you are a brand or rights holder who believes your mark or product has been misrepresented on our site, please contact us using the details at the bottom of this page.
Permitted Use of Third-Party Marks
- Name the maker on each product page to identify the goods we sell
- Display product images provided by or licensed from each maker
- Reproduce accurate product names and model references in listings
- Reference makers in editorial content (journal posts, buyer guides) to identify reviewed products
Unauthorized Use We Reject
- Claim that any maker endorses or sponsors The Meow Picks
- Alter, distort, or modify any maker's logo or trademark
- Register, squatter, or use any maker's trademark as a domain or social handle
- Represent any third-party product as our own original design
Reviews, messages, and your rights.
When you submit a product review, a contact-form message, or any other content to The Meow Picks through our website, you represent and warrant the following:
- You own or control all rights to the content you submit, or you have the right to grant us a license to use it.
- Your submission does not infringe the copyright, trademark, privacy, or other rights of any third party.
- You grant Aesthi Technologies Inc. a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to display, reproduce, and use your submission on this website and in related marketing materials for the duration of the content's presence on the site.
- You retain ownership of any original content you submit. Our license ends when we remove your submission from the site.
We do not accept or invite submission of any content that infringes third-party intellectual property rights. If you submit content that includes images, text, or other material owned by another party, you are responsible for obtaining the necessary rights or permissions before submitting.
Aesthi Technologies Inc. reserves the right to remove any user-submitted content at its discretion, including content flagged under a DMCA notice. We will act on valid takedown requests relating to user-submitted content using the same procedure described in the DMCA Notice section below.
Note: We currently do not operate a public-facing user content platform, marketplace, or review forum that generates significant volumes of third-party content. This section applies to contact-form submissions and any reviews or testimonials submitted to us directly.
How to report alleged copyright infringement.
If you believe that content appearing on themeowpicks.com infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to enforce, you may file a written DMCA takedown notice with our Designated Copyright Agent. Your notice must contain all of the elements listed below to be legally effective under the DMCA.
Required Elements of a Valid DMCA Takedown Notice
Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), a valid takedown notice must include all six of the following elements. Notices that omit required information cannot be acted upon and will be returned to the sender with an explanation of what is missing.
- Identification of the copyrighted work: A clear description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed, or — if multiple works on a single site are covered — a representative list of those works.
- Identification of the infringing material: A specific description of the material you claim infringes your copyright and its location on our site, sufficient for us to locate it. Where possible, provide the exact URL of each infringing page.
- Your contact information: Your full name, mailing address, telephone number, and a current email address at which we can reach you.
- Good-faith belief statement: A written statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- Accuracy statement: A written statement that the information in your notice is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
- Signature: Your physical or electronic signature. Typed your full legal name constitutes an electronic signature under U.S. law.
Designated Copyright Agent
Aesthi Technologies Inc.
Attn: Designated Copyright Agent
8 The Green #Suite A
Dover, DE 19901
United States
Email: josh@themeowpicks.com
Phone: +1 347-352-5552
Email is the fastest route. Please use the subject line: DMCA Takedown Notice — [brief description]
Our Response Timeline
- Acknowledgment: We will acknowledge receipt within 1 business day of receiving a complete, valid notice.
- Review: We will review the claimed infringement against the content in question, including whether the use may constitute fair use or falls within another exception.
- Action: If the notice is valid, we will expeditiously remove or disable access to the identified content and notify the user who posted it, where applicable.
- Documentation: We log all DMCA notices received as required to maintain our safe harbor protection under 17 U.S.C. § 512.
Warning regarding false claims: Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner's authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material. Before submitting a notice, please ensure you are the rights holder or their authorized representative and that the material genuinely infringes your rights.
If your content was removed and you believe it should not have been.
If content you submitted or that relates to you has been removed pursuant to a DMCA notice, and you believe the removal was made in error or that the content was misidentified, you have the right to submit a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g).
Required Elements of a Valid DMCA Counter-Notice
Your counter-notice must contain all of the following elements under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3):
- Identification of the removed material: A description of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled, and the location at which the material appeared before its removal.
- Statement under penalty of perjury: A statement made under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material.
- Consent to jurisdiction: Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which you reside (or, if outside the U.S., for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the original takedown notice.
- Physical or electronic signature: Your physical or electronic signature.
Send your counter-notice to our Designated Copyright Agent at the address listed above. Upon receiving a valid counter-notice, we will:
- Promptly provide the original complainant a copy of your counter-notice.
- Inform the original complainant that we will restore the removed content in 10–14 business days unless the complainant files a court action seeking an order to restrain you from infringing the material and provides us with notice of that filing.
- Restore access to the content after the applicable waiting period, unless we receive a court order preventing restoration.
We recommend consulting a qualified U.S. copyright attorney before submitting a counter-notice if you have any uncertainty about your rights or the applicable law.
Our policy on repeated copyright violations.
As a condition of maintaining protection under the DMCA safe harbor, Aesthi Technologies Inc. maintains and enforces a policy to terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts and access of users who are repeat infringers of intellectual property rights.
For the purposes of this policy, a repeat infringer is any user who has been the subject of two or more valid, non-retracted DMCA takedown notices that resulted in the removal of their content from our platform, or who has been found to have submitted infringing content on multiple separate occasions.
We keep a confidential log of DMCA notices received, content removed, and counter-notices submitted. This log is used to identify patterns of infringement and to apply our termination policy consistently and proportionately.
Users whose accounts are terminated under this policy will be notified by email. Terminated accounts may not be reopened or re-created to circumvent this policy. We reserve the right to apply this policy with greater speed and finality in cases involving egregious, willful, or commercial-scale infringement.
This policy applies to all users of our platform, including those who submit product reviews, contact-form submissions, partnership inquiries, or any other content to The Meow Picks.
Permitted uses of our content under fair use.
U.S. copyright law recognizes that certain uses of copyrighted material — commentary, criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research — may qualify as fair use even without the copyright holder's permission. Whether a use qualifies as fair use depends on a four-factor analysis under 17 U.S.C. § 107:
- Purpose and character of the use (commercial vs. non-commercial; transformative vs. reproductive)
- Nature of the copyrighted work (factual vs. creative; published vs. unpublished)
- Amount and substantiality of the portion used relative to the whole work
- Effect on the market for or value of the original work
We support the fair use doctrine and do not send infringement notices for uses that clearly qualify, including journalistic coverage of our business, product reviews by customers or journalists that quote brief passages from our site, academic research referencing our curatorial model, or educational commentary about the independent maker category.
If you are uncertain whether your intended use of our content qualifies as fair use, we encourage you to reach out to us before publishing. In many cases, we are willing to grant explicit written permission for uses we might not otherwise authorize, particularly for press, editorial, and non-commercial contexts.
Nothing in this policy constitutes legal advice. If you have a specific fair-use question, consult a qualified U.S. copyright attorney.
Using our name, logo, and brand references.
The following guidelines apply to anyone who wishes to reference The Meow Picks or Aesthi Technologies Inc. in press, editorial, affiliate, or other contexts.
| Use case | Permitted? | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial article naming The Meow Picks (press coverage, reviews) | Permitted | Use the full name accurately; do not modify or abbreviate in a misleading way |
| Referring to products we sell by brand name (e.g. "MiaCara products sold by The Meow Picks") | Permitted | Accurately identify maker and retailer; do not imply maker and retailer are the same entity |
| Social media post recommending our store | Permitted | Do not use our logo or TMP monogram as your own profile image or mark |
| Affiliate content linking to our products | Permitted | Must clearly disclose affiliate relationship per FTC guidelines (16 C.F.R. Part 255); use our text name, not logo, without written approval |
| Using our logo, TMP monogram, or brand mark in your own content | Requires permission | Submit a written request to josh@themeowpicks.com; usage is granted case by case |
| Domain name, social handle, or app name incorporating "The Meow Picks" or "themeowpicks" | Not permitted | Constitutes trademark infringement and/or cybersquatting under the ACPA, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) |
| Using our name to imply endorsement, partnership, or affiliation | Not permitted | Prohibited unless a written partnership or co-marketing agreement is in place; contact our partnership page |
| Reproducing our logo in printed materials (brochures, packaging, press kits) | Requires permission | Request brand assets in writing; we supply approved files and usage guidelines |
How we protect our intellectual property.
Aesthi Technologies Inc. takes infringement of its intellectual property seriously. The following describes the legal framework within which we act and the remedies we may pursue.
Copyright Infringement Remedies
Willful infringement of our copyrighted content may expose the infringer to statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work under 17 U.S.C. § 504, plus attorneys' fees and costs under § 505. We reserve the right to seek both injunctive relief and monetary damages in any federal district court of competent jurisdiction.
Trademark Infringement Remedies
Unauthorized use of The Meow Picks name, TMP monogram, or confusingly similar marks in commerce may constitute trademark infringement and/or unfair competition under the Lanham Act. Remedies include injunctive relief, disgorgement of profits, actual damages, treble damages for willful infringement, and attorneys' fees in exceptional cases.
Cybersquatting
Registration or use of a domain name, social media handle, or other online identifier incorporating our trademark in bad faith constitutes cybersquatting under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. Remedies include domain transfer orders, statutory damages of up to $100,000 per domain name, and attorneys' fees.
Unauthorized Access & Scraping
Automated scraping, systematic extraction, or unauthorized access to our site's content, code, or systems in violation of our Terms of Service may constitute a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and applicable state computer crime laws, in addition to copyright infringement. We monitor for and investigate such activity.
Our Preferred First Step
In all but the most egregious cases, our first step is to send a written notice to the infringer identifying the violation and requesting immediate cessation. We prefer to resolve IP disputes without litigation where the infringing party acts promptly and in good faith. If you have received such a notice from us, please contact josh@themeowpicks.com or +1 347-352-5552 immediately.
Forum & Applicable Law
Any dispute arising from the intellectual property rights described in this policy shall be governed by U.S. federal law and, where applicable, the laws of the State of Delaware. The federal district courts within the State of Delaware shall have non-exclusive jurisdiction over such disputes, and all parties consent to personal jurisdiction in that forum.
Nothing in this policy creates an attorney-client relationship between Aesthi Technologies Inc. and any reader. For legal advice specific to your situation, consult a qualified U.S. intellectual property attorney.
Questions, notices, and permission requests.
Whether you are submitting a DMCA notice, a counter-notice, requesting permission to use our content, or reporting a concern about how your brand is represented on our site — use the contacts below. We read and respond to every message within 1 business day, Monday through Friday.