Copyright Policy

Altius Web Solutions LLC (“Merkora”, “we”, “us”) hosts online stores for independent merchants. The merchants, not Merkora, choose and upload the content in their stores. We respect intellectual property rights and we require merchants to do the same.

This policy explains how to tell us about content on a Merkora-hosted store that you believe infringes your copyright, how the merchant can respond, and what we do. It follows the notice and takedown process in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”). Complaints about trademarks and other rights follow a separate route, described in Trademark and other complaints.

This policy is part of our Terms of Service. It is not legal advice. Notices and counter-notices have legal consequences, so consider speaking to a lawyer before you send one.

Send a written notice to our designated copyright agent. To be valid, the notice must include all six of these items:

• Your signature. The physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner, or of a person authorized to act for the owner. Typing your full name at the end of an email counts as an electronic signature.
• The work. A description of the copyrighted work you say was infringed. If your notice covers several works, a representative list is enough.
• The material and where it is. A description of the material you say is infringing, with enough detail for us to find it. Give the exact web address of each page, image or file. The address of a store's home page alone is usually not enough.
• Your contact details. Your name, mailing address, telephone number and email address.
• A good-faith statement. A statement that you believe in good faith that the use you are complaining about is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
• A statement of accuracy. A 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 for the owner.

Before you send a notice, consider whether the use may be allowed, for example under a license or as fair use.

When we receive a notice that includes all the required items, we:

• promptly remove the material or disable access to it;
• tell the merchant, and send them a copy of the notice, including your name and contact details; and
• keep a record of the notice against the merchant's account for the purposes of our repeat infringer policy.

Sometimes a single item cannot be removed on its own. In that case we may disable the page, product, theme or store that contains it until the merchant fixes the problem.

We do not decide who owns a work or whether a use is infringing. That is for the people involved or a court. We may also act on information that does not come as a formal notice, but we are not required to.

If you are a merchant and you believe your material was removed or disabled by mistake or because it was misidentified, you may send a counter-notice to our designated copyright agent at the address above. Reasons might be that you own the work, that you hold a license, or that the law allows your use. The counter-notice must include all of these items:

• Your signature. Your physical or electronic signature.
• The material and where it was. A description of the material that was removed or disabled, and the web address where it appeared before that happened.
• A statement under penalty of perjury. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith that the material was removed or disabled because of a mistake or misidentification.
• Your contact details. Your name, address and telephone number.
• Consent to jurisdiction. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district where your address is located or, if your address is outside the United States, for any district in which Merkora may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice or from that person's agent.

When we receive a valid counter-notice, we send a copy to the person who sent the original notice, including your contact details, and tell them that we will restore the material in 10 business days.

We restore the material no sooner than 10 and no later than 14 business days after we receive your counter-notice, unless the person who sent the original notice first tells our agent that they have filed a court action to stop the activity they complained about.

Restored material must still follow our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy. We may keep material offline for reasons other than the copyright complaint.

We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of merchants who repeatedly infringe. We keep a record of the valid notices we receive about each account. A notice that is withdrawn, or that the merchant answers with a successful counter-notice, does not count against the merchant.

We may also limit features or suspend a store while a complaint is open, and we may terminate an account after a single serious infringement, for example a store built to sell pirated or counterfeit goods. Fees are not refunded when an account is terminated under this policy.

Do not send a notice or counter-notice that you know is false. Under section 512(f) of the U.S. Copyright Act, a person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages. Those damages can include the costs and attorneys' fees of the merchant, the copyright owner and Merkora.

If someone abuses this process, we may disregard their later notices and may terminate any Merkora account they hold.

This policy covers everything in a merchant's store, however it got there. That includes material the merchant uploaded, typed in or imported from another platform: product descriptions, photos, videos, files, fonts, themes and theme code.

Merchants promise in our Terms of Service that they have the rights to everything they upload or import. When a merchant imports theme code, we also ask them to confirm that they own it or have written permission to use it. The merchant remains responsible for the material.

If you are a theme developer, photographer, font foundry or other rights holder and you find your work in a Merkora-hosted store, send a notice in the same way. For theme code, give the addresses of the pages where it appears and describe which parts were copied from your work.

If you believe that one of Merkora's own templates or materials infringes your rights, tell us at the same address.

The DMCA process above covers copyright only. Complaints about trademarks, counterfeit goods, patents, rights of publicity and other intellectual property follow a different route. We look at each one case by case. The counter-notice steps and timetable above do not apply to them.

Email info@altiusapps.com with “IP complaint” in the subject line, and include:

• your name, your company if you have one, and your contact details;
• the right you rely on. For a registered trademark, give the mark, the registration number, the country or office, and the goods or services it covers. If the right is not registered, explain what it is based on;
• the exact web address of each page, product or image you are complaining about;
• why you believe it infringes your right, for example why Shoppers are likely to be confused or why you believe the goods are counterfeit;
• a statement that the information is accurate and that you are the owner of the right or are authorized to act for the owner; and
• your signature.

After we review a complaint, we may remove or disable the content, ask the merchant to respond, or decide not to act, for example where there is a genuine disagreement that the people involved or a court should settle. We may share your complaint, including your contact details, with the merchant.

Using a brand name truthfully, for example to resell genuine goods or to say that a product is compatible with another, is often not infringement. Please consider this before you send a complaint.

Merkora is not a domain registrar. A complaint about a merchant's own domain name should go to the registrar of that domain or through the dispute process that applies to it. A complaint about a store address on a Merkora-provided domain can be sent to us in the way described above.

Designated copyright agent: [Registered DMCA agent name and address]

Email: info@altiusapps.com

Mail: Altius Web Solutions LLC, [Mailing address]