DMCA Takedown for a Copied Store: Step by Step With Template

If another store has copied your product photos, your product descriptions or your page layout, copyright law gives you a direct way to get that content removed. It is called a DMCA takedown notice, after the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and almost every web host and platform honours it, including many outside the US. You do not need a lawyer, and you do not pay a fee to file one.

What a DMCA takedown does, and what it does not

A DMCA notice targets copied content, not a business. It tells the party hosting the material, the web host, the platform, the CDN or the ad network, that specific content infringes your copyright and should come down. It works well for copied photos, copied text and copied page code.

It does not resolve a dispute over a domain name, and it does not settle a trademark question such as someone using your brand name or logo. Those have their own routes, which we come to below. Knowing which problem you actually have is what tells you which notice to send.

Before you file: gather your evidence

A notice is only as strong as the evidence behind it. For each piece of copied content, collect:

• The exact URL on the other site where the copied material appears, a specific page URL, not just the homepage.
• The original on your own site: the URL, and the date you published or first used it if you have it.
• A screenshot of both, with the date visible.
• For images, the original files. For text, the matching passages marked up.

Save everything in one folder before you start, because the notice asks for all of it. The clearer your evidence, the less room there is for the other side to stall.

Step by step: filing a DMCA takedown for a copied store

1. Confirm the content is yours and has been copied. Match each copied item to your original. A DMCA notice carries a sworn statement, so you file only on content you own or are authorised to act for.
2. Find who hosts the copied content. If it is a Shopify store, Shopify is the platform. Otherwise a WHOIS or hosting lookup on the domain tells you the host and often the CDN. The notice goes to the party that can actually remove the material.
3. Locate their designated agent or copyright form. Hosts and platforms publish a DMCA or copyright contact, usually a web form or a dedicated email address. Shopify has a dedicated form, linked below.
4. Fill in the notice. Use the template below. Include every required element, because a notice that is missing one of them can be rejected outright.
5. Send it from your own contact details and sign it. The notice is filed by you, the rights holder. It carries your name, your contact details and your signature, and a statement you make under penalty of perjury. No one else can make that statement for you.
6. Keep a copy and watch for a counter-notice. The other side can file a counter-notice. On Shopify the window is 10 to 14 business days, after which content may be restored unless you have taken further action. Save every reply.

Copy-paste DMCA notice template

Fill in every field in square brackets, and keep it factual. The six elements below, identification of the work, the infringing URLs, your contact details, the good-faith statement, the penalty-of-perjury statement, and your signature, are what make a notice valid.

To the Designated Copyright Agent:

I am the owner of the copyright in the work described below, or I am
authorised to act on the owner's behalf. I am writing to request the
removal of material that infringes that copyright.

1. Identification of the copyrighted work
I own the copyright in the following original work:
[describe the work, for example "the product photographs and product
descriptions published at the URLs below"].
The original appears on my own website at:
[https://your-site.example/original-page-1]
[https://your-site.example/original-page-2]

2. Identification of the infringing material
The material that infringes my copyright appears at these exact URLs:
[https://the-other-site.example/page-1]
[https://the-other-site.example/page-2]
I request that this material be removed, or access to it disabled.

3. My contact details
Name: [your full name]
Company: [your company, if any]
Address: [your postal address]
Email: [your email address]
Phone: [your phone number]

4. Good-faith belief
I have a good-faith belief that the use of the material described above
is not authorised by me, the copyright owner, my agent, or the law.

5. Statement of accuracy and authority
The information in this notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury
I am the owner of the copyright, or am authorised to act on behalf of the
owner, of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

6. Signature
[your full name]
[date]
Signed: [your electronic or physical signature]

Where to send a DMCA notice, and why it is free

You send the notice directly to the host or platform's designated copyright agent. There is no government fee and no platform fee for filing one. The only cost, if any, is your own time, or a lawyer you choose to involve, which is optional.

For a copied Shopify store, Shopify provides a dedicated copyright form at shopify.com/legal/tools/report-an-issue/dmca. Its copyright policy, including how counter-notices work, is set out at Shopify's copyright policy page. After Shopify acts, the other side can file a counter-notice, and the window is 10 to 14 business days, so keep your evidence ready in case you need to take the matter further.

If your first notice is rejected or ignored, the wording is usually the reason. Our guide to Shopify DMCA wording and common rejections covers what to change. To take a persistent fake fully offline across its host, registrar, CDN and payment processor, see how to take down a fake website.

When a DMCA notice is not the right tool

A DMCA notice removes copied content. It does not help with two related problems, and it is worth being clear about which one you have rather than sending the wrong notice.

• The problem is the domain name itself. If a storefront using your brand that you have not authorised is built on a lookalike domain, removing the copied content does not free the domain. Domain disputes run through the URS and UDRP processes instead. We lay out both, and the costs, in UDRP vs URS: which domain dispute route to pick.
• The problem is your brand name or logo. Use of your trademark, rather than copying your photos or text, is a trademark matter with its own report route, not a copyright one.

This is information, not legal advice. Which route fits your situation is a judgement call, and for anything high-value it is worth a conversation with a lawyer. If you are dealing with a copied Shopify storefront more generally, reporting a fake Shopify store impersonating your brand covers the full set of routes.

How Katcher fits in

The slow part of a DMCA notice is the evidence: matching each copied item to your original, capturing the exact URLs, and getting every required field right so the notice is not rejected. Katcher does that preparation for you. We fill in every field of the notice from the evidence we gathered, and you review it and send it. The notice is filed by you, the rights holder, from your own contact details, because only you can make the sworn statement it contains. We do not and cannot file it for you.

Alongside that, Katcher runs the routes that need no signature from you, such as Google Safe Browsing, host abuse, and registrar and CDN reports, which can act on a fake without a sworn notice. To be candid, Katcher is newer than the decade-old enterprise brand protection vendors, and it has a smaller takedown track record than they do. What it gives you is a faster, evidenced path from finding a copy to having a notice ready to send.

See what is copied, with the evidence ready

Before you can file anything, you need to know what has been copied and where. Katcher's free imposter scan finds the storefronts using your brand and shows you the evidence for each one, so a notice can be prepared from real matches rather than guesswork. No card, no call.

Scan your brand, free.

About the author

Davis Paipa is the founder of Katcher and of Libautech, and has spent five years building on Shopify. He writes about takedowns because the paperwork, not the law, is what stops most brand owners from acting on a copy.