Terms of service
OVERVIEW
Welcome to TheCatLab. Throughout the site, the terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to TheCatLab. TheCatLab operates this website and store, including all related information, content, features, tools, products, and services (collectively, the “Services”), to provide you with a curated shopping experience. TheCatLab is powered by Shopify, which enables us to provide the Services to you.
These Terms of Service, together with any policies referenced herein, including our Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, and Shipping Policy, describe your rights and responsibilities when you use the Services.
By accessing, browsing, interacting with, or using our Services, or by purchasing something from us, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you may not access or use the Services.
SECTION 1 - ACCESS AND ACCOUNT
By agreeing to these Terms of Service, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority and have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use the Services on devices you own, purchase, or manage.
To use certain parts of the Services, including placing an order, you may be asked to provide information such as your name, email address, billing address, shipping address, and payment details. You agree that all information you provide is accurate, current, and complete and that you have the legal right to provide such information.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You may not transfer, assign, sell, or otherwise allow another person to use your account without our prior written consent.
SECTION 2 - OUR PRODUCTS
We offer custom and personalized products, many of which are made to order using customer-submitted content, including photos, text, names, dates, colors, and other customization instructions.
We make reasonable efforts to display product colors, designs, materials, dimensions, and other details as accurately as possible. However, we do not guarantee that product colors, textures, scale, or appearance will be exactly as displayed on your screen, as display settings, lighting, monitor calibration, production methods, and material differences may affect appearance.
Because many of our products are custom-made, slight differences in size, placement, scale, color, thread tone, print tone, weaving outcome, texture, or other visual details may occur and are not considered defects. The final product may vary slightly from digital mockups, proofs, previews, or product photos.
All product descriptions, images, pricing, options, and availability are subject to change at any time without notice. We reserve the right to discontinue any product or service at any time.
SECTION 3 - CUSTOM ORDERS, CUSTOMER SUBMISSIONS, AND APPROVALS
Certain products require you to upload or submit photos, wording, customization instructions, or other materials (“Customer Content”).
By submitting Customer Content to us, you represent and warrant that:
- you own the content or have all rights, permissions, and consents necessary to provide it to us and authorize our use of it;
- our use of the Customer Content to create, personalize, produce, market, and deliver your order will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, or publicity rights; and
- the Customer Content does not contain anything unlawful, defamatory, obscene, harassing, misleading, or otherwise objectionable.
You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, edit, resize, crop, adapt, display, publish, and create derivative works from your Customer Content solely for the purpose of:
(a) processing, designing, producing, and delivering your order;
(b) communicating with you about your order;
(c) maintaining business records; and
(d) unless you request otherwise in writing before production begins, using images of the final customized design or product for portfolio, marketing, advertising, social media, website, and promotional purposes.
If you do not want your customized design, pet image, or final product used for marketing or portfolio purposes, you must notify us in writing at TheCatLab.co@gmail.com before production begins.
You are responsible for carefully reviewing all customization details before placing your order and for promptly responding to any proof or clarification requests. We are not responsible for errors caused by inaccurate, incomplete, low-quality, or conflicting information, photos, files, or instructions submitted by you.
If a proof, mockup, or approval step is offered or purchased, production will proceed based on the version approved by you. Once you approve a proof, mockup, design, spelling, layout, or color selection, you are responsible for any approved errors, including spelling mistakes, dates, names, color choices, icon choices, pet selection, or other customization details.
We reserve the right to decline any customization request or submitted content at our sole discretion.
SECTION 4 - ORDERS
Placing an order constitutes an offer to purchase. We reserve the right to accept, reject, cancel, limit, or refuse any order for any lawful reason, including suspected fraud, inaccurate pricing, product or production limitations, issues with submitted materials, suspected infringement, abuse of the Services, or unavailability of materials.
Your order is not accepted until payment has been successfully processed and we confirm acceptance. We may attempt to contact you using the email address, phone number, or other contact information provided if an issue arises with your order.
Because many of our products are customized and made to order, order changes and cancellations may be limited or unavailable once design work, personalization work, file preparation, or production has begun. Please review your order carefully before submitting.
Your purchases are subject to our Refund Policy, Shipping Policy, and any product-page disclosures.
SECTION 5 - PRICES AND BILLING
Prices, discounts, promotions, and availability are subject to change without notice. The price charged will be the price in effect at the time your order is placed, as set forth in your order confirmation, unless there is an obvious pricing error.
Posted prices do not include taxes, shipping, handling, customs duties, import fees, or other governmental charges unless explicitly stated otherwise. You are responsible for all applicable taxes and fees associated with your purchase.
You agree to provide current, complete, and accurate billing, payment, shipping, and account information and to promptly update such information as needed. By submitting payment information, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to use the selected payment method and authorize us and our payment processors to charge the full amount due.
SECTION 6 - SHIPPING AND DELIVERY
Delivery timelines are estimates only and are not guaranteed. We are not responsible for delays caused by carriers, customs, weather, labor disruptions, supply shortages, production issues outside our reasonable control, or other events beyond our control.
Once an order is transferred to the carrier, title to and risk of loss for the products passes to you to the extent permitted by law. We are not responsible for lost, stolen, delayed, or misdelivered packages caused by carrier issues or incorrect shipping information supplied by you.
You are responsible for ensuring your shipping address is complete and accurate. We are not liable for orders shipped to the address you provided if that address is incorrect, incomplete, outdated, or undeliverable.
International orders may be subject to customs duties, taxes, import fees, or other charges imposed by the destination country. These amounts are your responsibility unless otherwise stated.
We may use third-party production and fulfillment partners to manufacture and ship certain orders. Fulfillment location, shipping carrier, packaging, and shipment origin may vary by product, destination, and provider availability. Items within the same order may arrive separately.
SECTION 7 - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Because many of our products are personalized, custom-made, or made to order, they are generally not eligible for return, exchange, or cancellation except as expressly stated in our Refund Policy or as required by law.
We do not issue refunds or replacements for issues arising from:
- approved proofs or approved customization details;
- customer spelling errors, date errors, or instruction errors;
- dissatisfaction based solely on slight color, weaving, fabric, print, scale, texture, or placement variation;
- delays caused by carriers, customs, or circumstances outside our control; or
- low-quality, blurry, obstructed, poorly lit, or otherwise unsuitable customer-submitted photos or files.
Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you may have under applicable consumer protection law that cannot lawfully be waived.
SECTION 8 - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
All content available through the Services, including but not limited to text, graphics, logos, icons, product photos, artwork, illustrations, designs, compilations, page layouts, videos, downloads, and the selection and arrangement thereof, is owned by TheCatLab, its licensors, or its content suppliers and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.
Except for the limited right to use the Services for personal, non-commercial shopping purposes, no part of the Services may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, publicly displayed, encoded, translated, transmitted, distributed, or otherwise exploited without our prior written permission.
Unless expressly stated otherwise in writing, your purchase of a custom product does not transfer ownership of the underlying artwork, design files, mockups, or intellectual property rights. We retain all rights, title, and interest in all artwork, illustrations, designs, layouts, product mockups, previews, and creative materials we create, even where such materials incorporate your Customer Content.
You may not reproduce, resell, distribute, digitize, trace, edit, commercially exploit, or create derivative works from our designs, artwork, previews, mockups, or final products without our prior written consent.
SECTION 9 - OPTIONAL TOOLS
You may be provided with access to third-party tools or services that we do not monitor, control, or manage. Such tools are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties, representations, conditions, or endorsements of any kind.
Your use of optional third-party tools is entirely at your own risk and subject to the applicable third party’s terms and policies.
SECTION 10 - THIRD-PARTY LINKS
The Services may contain links to third-party websites, services, or content. We are not responsible for examining or evaluating the content, accuracy, policies, or practices of any third-party website or service.
Your access to third-party websites is at your own risk, and we are not liable for any loss, damage, or harm arising from your use of or reliance on any third-party site, product, or service.
SECTION 11 - RELATIONSHIP WITH SHOPIFY
TheCatLab is powered by Shopify, which enables us to provide the Services to you. However, any sales and purchases you make in our store are made directly with TheCatLab. By using the Services, you acknowledge and agree that Shopify is not responsible for any aspect of any sales between you and TheCatLab, including any injury, damage, or loss resulting from purchased products or services. You hereby expressly release Shopify and its affiliates from all claims, damages, and liabilities arising from or related to your purchases and transactions with TheCatLab.
SECTION 12 - PRIVACY POLICY
All personal information we collect through the Services is subject to our Privacy Policy. By using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read our Privacy Policy.
Because the Services are hosted by Shopify, certain personal information may also be collected, processed, and stored by Shopify and its service providers in accordance with Shopify’s policies and systems.
SECTION 13 - FEEDBACK, REVIEWS, AND SUBMISSIONS
If you submit suggestions, ideas, reviews, comments, testimonials, or other feedback to us, you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicensable, royalty-free right to use, reproduce, modify, publish, display, distribute, and share such content for lawful business purposes, including marketing and promotional purposes.
You represent and warrant that any feedback or review you submit is truthful, does not violate any law or third-party rights, and does not contain unlawful, abusive, defamatory, fraudulent, or misleading content.
We may remove, edit, refuse, or moderate reviews or submissions in our sole discretion, but we are not obligated to do so.
SECTION 14 - ERRORS, INACCURACIES, AND OMISSIONS
Occasionally there may be information on or in the Services that contain typographical errors, inaccuracies or omissions that may relate to product descriptions, pricing, promotions, offers, product shipping charges, transit times and availability. We reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions, and to change or update information or cancel orders if any information is inaccurate at any time without prior notice (including after you have submitted your order).
SECTION 15 - PROHIBITED USES
You may not use the Services:
(a) for any unlawful purpose;
(b) to violate any law or regulation;
(c) to infringe upon our intellectual property rights or the rights of others;
(d) to submit false, deceptive, infringing, or unauthorized materials;
(e) to harass, abuse, threaten, defame, or otherwise harm any person;
(f) to upload malicious code or interfere with the functionality or security of the Services;
(g) to scrape, crawl, harvest, copy, monitor, or extract data from the Services without our prior written consent;
(h) to use bots, spiders, AI agents, automated systems, or other tools to access or interact with the Services in violation of these Terms; or
(i) to interfere with any security feature or access restriction we use.
We may suspend, restrict, or terminate access to the Services for any violation of these Terms.
SECTION 16 - AGENTS
This section applies if you use, allow, enable, or cause the deployment of any automated agent, bot, crawler, scraper, or autonomous or semi-autonomous software (“Agent”) to access or interact with the Services.
No Agent may access or interact with the Services unless it clearly identifies itself and complies with all restrictions we impose. We may limit, block, suspend, or prohibit Agent access at any time, including through technical measures.
Agents may not mimic human behavior, bypass CAPTCHAs, conceal their automated nature, circumvent access controls, or ignore requests to stop accessing the Services.
SECTION 17 - TERMINATION
We may terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Services at any time, with or without notice, for any reason permitted by law, including if we believe you have violated these Terms.
Termination will not affect any rights or obligations accrued before termination. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including without limitation sections relating to intellectual property, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, governing law, and dispute resolution.
SECTION 18 - DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
The Services and all products and content made available through the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, TheCatLab disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, and uninterrupted or error-free operation.
We do not warrant that the Services will be secure, uninterrupted, error-free, or free from harmful components, or that any product, service, information, or other material obtained through the Services will meet your expectations.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty disclaimers, so portions of this section may not apply to you.
SECTION 19 - LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
To the fullest extent permitted by law, TheCatLab and its owners, affiliates, service providers, contractors, licensors, and partners shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost savings, loss of goodwill, loss of data, or replacement costs, arising out of or related to your use of the Services or any product purchased through the Services, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the Services or any product purchased from us shall not exceed the amount you paid to us for the specific product or order giving rise to the claim.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
SECTION 20 - INDEMNIFICATION
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless TheCatLab, Shopify, and our affiliates, officers, directors, employees, contractors, service providers, licensors, and agents from and against any claims, losses, damages, liabilities, judgments, penalties, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or relating to:
(a) your breach of these Terms;
(b) your misuse of the Services;
(c) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party; or
(d) any Customer Content, data, photos, files, text, or materials you submit to us.
SECTION 21 - FORCE MAJEURE
We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, weather events, natural disasters, fire, flood, war, terrorism, labor disputes, supply shortages, utility interruptions, internet or platform outages, carrier delays, governmental action, epidemics, pandemics, or other force majeure events.
SECTION 22 - SEVERABILITY
If any provision of these Terms is determined to be unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision shall nevertheless be enforced to the fullest extent permitted by law, and the unenforceable portion shall be deemed severed from these Terms without affecting the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
SECTION 23 - WAIVER; ENTIRE AGREEMENT
Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
These Terms, together with any policies posted on the site, constitute the entire agreement between you and TheCatLab regarding your use of the Services and supersede any prior or contemporaneous understandings or communications.
SECTION 24 - ASSIGNMENT
You may not assign, transfer, or delegate any of your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign, transfer, or delegate our rights and obligations under these Terms without restriction.
SECTION 25 - GOVERNING LAW
These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to the Services or any purchase from TheCatLab shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict of law principles.
You agree that any legal action or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of such courts.
If you are not legally operating from Illinois, change this section to the state where your business is actually based.
SECTION 26 - CHANGES TO TERMS OF SERVICE
We reserve the right to update, modify, or replace any part of these Terms at any time by posting the revised version on this page. It is your responsibility to review this page periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Services after any changes are posted constitutes acceptance of those changes, to the extent permitted by law.
SECTION 27 - CONTACT INFORMATION
Questions about the Terms of Service should be sent to us at thecatlab.co@gmail.com.
Our contact information is posted below:
TheCatLab
TheCatLab.co
thecatlab.co@gmail.com
Chicago, IL