Intellectual Property Policy

Last updated: 14 November 2026

This policy explains who owns what on teachtee.shop, what you are welcome to do with it, what we ask you not to do, and how we keep other people’s names, logos and characters off our products. It also tells you how to raise a concern about a trademark, a design or any other right. Copyright notices have their own process on our DMCA page. If you only have a quick question, such as whether your grade team may post a photo in our shirts, the answer is in section 3 and it is yes.

1. What belongs to Teach Tee

Unless a page says otherwise, the following are owned by Teach Tee or used under permission and are protected by copyright, trademark and related laws:

• the name “Teach Tee” and our logo, a tee folded like a paper name tag with a ruled line;
• every printed design in the shop, including lettering layouts and drawn elements such as number lines, tally marks, date cards, name plates and door signs as we have drawn them;
• product pictures, preview images and the illustrations on the homepage and category pages;
• product descriptions, guides, policy pages and the other text of the site;
• the page layouts and the code behind them.

We do not claim to own the things every classroom shares. A number line, a pocket chart, a helper chart and the phrase “100th day of school” belong to nobody. What we own is our particular drawing and arrangement of them.

2. Why our designs stay original

A teacher wears our shirts in front of students, families and colleagues. She should never have to wonder whether the design on her chest was borrowed from somewhere it should not have been. So we hold a simple line when we create a design:

If we learn that one of our designs may come too close to someone else’s protected work, we review it and remove it when that is the right call. We would rather lose a design than leave a doubtful one in the shop.

3. What you are welcome to do

Buying a shirt does not come with a rulebook. These everyday uses are all fine and need no permission:

• Wear it, gift it, pass it on. The item is yours.
• Photograph it. Take the first day team photo at the classroom door, post it on your own social pages, put it in the staff newsletter or the yearbook.
• Share links. Send a product link to your grade team chat or to the room parent organising the class gift.
• Print pages for yourself. For example, print the size guide to pass around the staff room while you collect sizes.
• Quote a short extract of our text with a link back to the page it came from.
• Write about us. A blog post or newsletter mention may use the Teach Tee name in plain text to refer to the store.

4. What we ask you not to do

• Copy, trace or redraw our designs to print them yourself or through another printer, even for a single team order.
• Download our product pictures or illustrations and use them in another shop, a marketplace listing, a print file or an advertisement.
• Republish our product descriptions or policy text as your own.
• Use the Teach Tee name or logo, or something confusingly close to it, in a way that suggests you are us or that we endorse you.
• Resell our products as a business without our written agreement.
• Scrape or bulk-download the site with automated tools, apart from normal search engine indexing.
• Remove or hide any copyright or ownership notice.

Here is a worked example. A fifth grade team loves the last day design and wants twelve more for the whole upper hall, in a colour we do not list. The right step is to email us and ask. The wrong step is to screenshot the design and send it to a local print shop. We may or may not be able to help with the colour, but we will always answer.

5. The text you type on personalised items

Three products carry a name and a grade or role that you type on the product page. The grade or role field is free text, so a teacher in Australia can type “Year 3” or “Prep”, and a specialist can type “Art” or “Library”. A live preview shows the result and we print exactly what you type.

Because the words are yours, the responsibility for them is yours too. When you type text you confirm that you have the right to use it. In practice this means:

• Fine: “Mrs. Brown”, “Mr. Okafor”, “Ms. J”, “Coach Lee”, “First Grade”, “Room 12”, “Year 3”, “Front Office”.
• Not accepted: a company or product name, a character name, a team or mascot name used as branding, a slogan that belongs to someone else, or wording that presents the item as official merchandise of a school or district.

We do not prefill or suggest any school, team or brand name in these fields, and there is no logo upload. If typed text appears to infringe someone’s rights, we may decline to print it. We then email you so you can change the text or cancel that item for a full refund.

6. Our name and logo

“Teach Tee” and our logo identify this store. Please do not register a domain, a shop name or a social handle that copies them or is close enough to confuse people. Other names that may appear on the site, for example the name of a payment service at checkout once one is connected, belong to their owners. Their appearance does not mean they sponsor or endorse us.

Teach Tee is independent. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or approved by any school, district, parent organisation, teacher association or education company. Our products are not official school spirit wear, and nothing on the site should be read as saying so.

7. Reporting a trademark or other concern

If you believe something on teachtee.shop infringes your trademark, design right, right of publicity or another right that is not copyright, email support@teachtee.shop with the subject “IP concern”. Please include:

1. your name and contact details, and your relationship to the owner of the right, for example owner, employee or legal representative;
2. the right you believe is infringed, such as a trademark registration number and country, or a description and proof of the design;
3. the exact address of each product or page concerned;
4. a short explanation of why you believe it infringes;
5. a statement that the information you have given is accurate and that you are authorised to raise the concern.

You can also write by post to Teach Tee, 2109 Crown View Way, Oceanside, CA 92056, US. For copyright specifically, such as a drawing or photograph of yours, please use the six-element notice described on the DMCA page instead.

8. What happens after you report

1. We reply by email within 24 hours on business days to confirm we have your report.
2. We read it against the product or page and our own design records. If something is missing we ask for it before deciding.
3. If the concern is valid, we remove or change the content and tell you what we did.
4. If we disagree, we explain why in plain words. You remain free to take the matter further.

We do not publish a fixed number of days for the review, because a clear case can be settled the same day and a close one deserves a careful look. You will not be left without an answer.

Please raise concerns honestly. A report made to remove a competitor’s lawful design, or one that claims rights in an everyday classroom idea, helps nobody.

9. Ideas, feedback and requests

Teachers send good ideas: a line for the music teacher, a design for the last day of kinder. If you send us one, we may use it freely and without payment, and you confirm that it is yours to share. We will never publish your name, your school or any personal detail without your permission. Sending an idea does not oblige us to make it.

We cannot print a design you supply as artwork, and we cannot add a school logo to an existing design, even with the school’s blessing. That keeps every item in the shop inside the line described in section 2.

The same goes for review photos. Reviews can be left by verified buyers only, and a photo you add must be your own. Please keep school names, mascots, student faces and other people’s artwork out of the frame, so that a picture posted to help the next teacher choose a size does not create a problem for you, your school or anyone else.

10. Asking permission

Some uses fall outside section 3 but may still be fine with a quick conversation. Examples: a parent organisation that wants to show one of our product pictures in a fundraiser flyer, a blogger who wants several images for a gift guide, or a school that wants to order a larger quantity. Email support@teachtee.shop with the subject “Permission request” and tell us what you want to use, where it will appear and for how long. Permission is only given in writing, and only for the use described.

11. Related pages and contact

This policy sits alongside our Terms of Service, which cover the rules for using the site and for the text you ask us to print, and our DMCA page for copyright notices. For order questions, start at the Help Center. To see the designs this policy talks about, visit the shop.

Questions about this policy go to support@teachtee.shop, or by post to Teach Tee, 2109 Crown View Way, Oceanside, CA 92056, US. We reply to email within 24 hours on business days.