Intellectual Property Policy

Last updated: November 14, 2026

This Intellectual Property Policy explains what belongs to Yard Flag on yardflag.shop, what you are welcome to do with it, what you may not do, how we keep other people’s names and marks off our flags, mats and signs, and how to raise a trademark, design, name or likeness concern with us. If your concern is that something here copies a drawing, photo or piece of writing you made, our DMCA page sets out the copyright notice process. Everything else starts with an email to support@yardflag.shop.

1. What belongs to Yard Flag

Much of what makes this site useful is the planning work around the products, and that work is ours. It includes:

• The Yard Flag name as used for this shop and its pages.
• Product artwork on our garden flags, house flags, doormats, porch leaner signs, throw pillows, round door hanger, Swap Day Mug and mailbox cover, from Cardinal on Evergreen and Tulip Row to Porch-light Jack-o’-Lantern and Plain Welcome Stripe.
• The homepage drawings: the swap ring of the year with its “Up now” and “Up next” cards and its North / South toggle, the “front, and back as the street sees it” flip cards, the dressed front step for each season, the swap-day steps, and the true-size guide that draws a garden flag and a house flag beside a door.
• Written guides: the northern and southern swap calendars as we describe them, the plural surname guide, product descriptions, the Size Guide, the FAQs and every policy page.
• Photos and digital previews of products, including season sets shown together on one step.
• The site’s layout and code.

These are protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws in the United States and in the countries we sell to.

2. What you are welcome to do

We would rather you share the swap ring with a neighbour than worry about rules, so here is the simple version:

• View, save and print pages for your own planning. Printing the true-size guide to hold up by your door is exactly what it is for.
• Share links to any page or product by message, email or on social media.
• Post photos of your own front step with our products on it. A flag on your porch is yours to photograph.
• Quote a short passage, such as one line of the plural surname guide, with a link back to the page it came from.
• Mention Yard Flag by name when you recommend us or review a purchase honestly.

3. What you may not do

• Copy our product artwork onto flags, mats, signs, shirts or any other item, whether to sell or to give away in bulk.
• Republish our product photos, descriptions or guides on another shop, a marketplace listing or a print-on-demand storefront.
• Redraw the swap ring, the flip cards or the true-size guide closely enough that they pass as ours, for a commercial site or product.
• Use the Yard Flag name, or a name confusingly close to it, in a way that suggests we made, approved or sponsor your product or shop.
• Scrape or bulk-download the site with automated tools, other than normal search engine indexing.

An example of the line: a neighbour who prints the swap calendar to pin on the fridge is welcome to. A shop that lifts the calendar text and the season set photos into its own listings is not. If you are unsure which side of the line a use falls on, ask us first by email.

4. How we keep other people’s marks off our products

Front-step decor is a place where protected names creep in easily, so we keep firm rules for our own catalogue. Designs on Yard Flag are original artwork made for the shop or used with permission, and we do not knowingly sell anything that uses someone else’s mark.

Holidays and seasons themselves belong to everyone. A Christmas porch lantern, a Halloween jack-o’-lantern or a Fourth of July bunting design names an occasion, not a brand. For buyers in Australia and New Zealand, where Christmas falls in summer, we describe the occasion as it happens there rather than borrowing northern winter imagery.

4.1 No endorsement

If a name or mark belonging to someone else ever appears on the site, for example in a policy page that mentions a law or a payment provider, it belongs to its owner. Its appearance does not mean that owner endorses Yard Flag or any of our products.

5. Personalised products and your text

The Family Name Welcome Flag, Family Name Doormat, Family Name Porch Leaner Sign and Family Name Mailbox Cover print text you type: a family name of up to 18 characters, an optional four-digit “Est.” year and, on the mailbox cover, an optional house number of up to 6 characters. A live preview shows the lines as typed, and we print exactly what is typed, with no proof sent before production.

Because the text is yours, so is the responsibility for it. The fields are meant for names like The Millers, The Joneses or The Nguyens, and those demo names on our site are fictional. Please do not use them for:

• A team, league, brand or product name, or a slogan tied to one.
• A character’s name or catchphrase.
• Another person’s full name used without their agreement, such as a public figure.
• Anything else you do not have the right to use.

Our Terms of Service allow us to decline an order that breaks these rules and refund it in full. A family who has just moved and wants their own new surname on the doormat is exactly who the field is for. A buyer who types a football club into the name line is not.

5.1 Names, likeness and privacy

We never use a customer’s family name, house number or front-step photo in our examples, product images or marketing. The surnames you see in guides are made up for that purpose. If you believe a real person’s name or face appears on the site without permission, including your own, tell us using the steps in section 6 and we will look at it promptly. How we handle personal details is covered in the Privacy Policy.

6. How to report an intellectual property concern

Email support@yardflag.shop with the subject line “IP concern” and include:

1. Your name, email address and postal address, and your relationship to the rights owner, for example “owner”, “licensee” or “lawyer acting for the owner”.
2. The right you believe is affected: a trademark with its registration number and country, a registered design, a name or likeness, or a description of the right.
3. The full address of each page on yardflag.shop that concerns you, and which image or line on that page.
4. A short explanation of why you believe it infringes or misuses that right.
5. A statement that the information in your report is accurate and that you are the rights owner or authorised to act for them.

For a copyright claim about artwork, photos or writing, the DMCA page lists the six elements a formal notice needs. Sending it there keeps the right legal steps in place.

6.1 A worked example

A small design studio believes the name of one of our products is too close to a product name it has registered. Its email has the subject “IP concern”, gives the registration number and the country of registration, links to our product page, explains where the names overlap, and confirms the person writing is the studio’s owner. That report gives us everything we need to compare and decide.

7. What happens after you report

1. We acknowledge your report within 24 hours on business days.
2. We read it against the page you identified. If anything is missing or unclear, we ask before deciding.
3. If the concern is valid, we change or remove the material, which may mean renaming a product, replacing an image or taking a design out of sale.
4. We tell you by email what we did. If we decide no change is needed, we explain why.

If you ordered a design that is later renamed or taken out of sale, your order and your right to return any item within 60 days of delivery are not affected. The Returns & Exchanges Policy applies as usual.

8. Ideas and suggestions

Buyers often write with ideas: a Canadian Thanksgiving design for October, a sign for the in-between weeks, a winter mat for a southern June. We enjoy reading them. If you send us an idea, we may use it freely without payment or credit, because many people suggest similar seasonal themes and we cannot track who thought of a tulip row first. We will never publish your name, address or photos alongside an idea without asking you.

9. Permission requests

If you would like to use our artwork, a drawing such as the swap ring, or a product photo for something beyond the uses in section 2, such as a magazine feature, a garden club newsletter or a school project, email us with the subject “Permission request”. Say what you would like to use, where it would appear and for how long. Please wait for a written yes before you use it.

10. Changes and contact

We may update this policy as the catalogue grows or the law changes. The “Last updated” date at the top shows the latest version. For any question about it, email support@yardflag.shop; we reply within 24 hours on business days. Our postal address is Yard Flag, 1017 Evening Star Dr, Roaming Shores, OH 44085, US. See also Terms of Service, Contact Us and the Sitemap.