Copyright issues and goodbye to Teespring (Patreon)

Here's one comic that won't appear in my upcoming book of cat cartoons because of copyright issues. The blurred out text on the man's vest originally said "Service Human." Turns out that's a copyrighted term. Here's how I found out:

I was selling a T-shirt design based on this cartoon in my Teespring store. A few weeks ago, I got an email from Teespring's Intellectual Property department saying they removed my T-shirt design from their site because the term "Service Human" is trademarked.

A little frustrating, but totally understandable. I emailed them back saying I understood and that I was glad they're responding to intellectual property issues. 

The next day, I tried to log into my Teespring account and couldn't get in. I thought the site was down for maintenance. I tried later and still couldn't access my account.

Teespring had booted me off their site because they have a "one strike and you're out" policy for copyright infringement violations. I exchanged a bunch of emails with their Intellectual Property team, politely explaining my case - I had a long history with them, I had no idea that "Service Human" was a trademarked term, my artwork was my own, etc. It was an innocent mistake, guys. Let's move on from this. 

But they didn't budge. 

So after spending some time licking my wounds (and poking pins into my Teespring voodoo doll), I started looking for a new site to work with. I'm putting together an entire new store to sell T-shirts, mugs, and other merch. Stay tuned.

And to Teespring: our time together was magical, it's too bad we ended on a bad note, and you are dead to me. (As you can see, I'm still working through this.)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

EDIT: I used the wrong term earlier. "Service Human" is trademarked, not copyrighted. Also, I'm going to change the wording on the vest (there are many other options) and put this comic the book.