Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are between you and Best Mate Studio LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company ("Best Mate," "we," "us," or "our"). By using bestmatestudio.com (the "Site") or purchasing any product from Best Mate, you agree to these Terms. Please read them carefully. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.

1. What Best Mate Is

Best Mate is an AI-powered pet portrait service. You upload a photo of your pet. Our AI generates a styled digital artwork based on that photo. You preview the result before deciding whether to purchase.

Important: All portraits are AI-generated artworks. They are not hand-painted, not hand-edited, and not produced by a human artist. By using the service, you acknowledge and accept this.

2. Your Account and Orders

You do not need to create an account to use Best Mate. Orders are processed as guest checkouts. You are responsible for providing accurate information (email address, shipping address) when placing an order. We are not responsible for failed deliveries caused by incorrect information you provide.

3. Your Photo: What You Confirm By Uploading

By uploading a photo to Best Mate, you confirm all of the following:

• You own the photo or have the right to use it for this purpose.
• The photo contains only your own pet(s) or pets you have permission to submit.
• The photo does not contain any person in a way that would require their consent.
• You are not uploading a photo of someone else's pet to generate a portrait without their knowledge or permission.
• The photo does not contain any obscene, illegal, or harmful content.

We reserve the right to refuse any upload that violates these conditions. Uploads that trigger our quality or safety filters will be rejected automatically. We will not charge you for a rejected upload.

4. Intellectual Property

4a. Your Photo

You retain full ownership of the photo you upload. We do not claim any rights to it. We use it solely to generate your portrait and delete it as described in our Privacy Policy.

4b. Your Generated Portrait

Upon purchase and payment in full, Best Mate grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use your generated portrait for personal and non-commercial purposes. This means you may:

• Display your portrait in your home.
• Print it for personal use.
• Share it on personal social media.
• Give it as a gift.

You may not:

• Resell or commercially exploit the portrait.
• Reproduce the portrait in quantity for commercial sale.
• Claim the portrait is hand-made or not AI-generated when representing it publicly.
• Use the portrait to train any AI model or include it in any AI training dataset.

Watermarked preview images are provided for selection purposes only. They may not be saved, downloaded, shared, or used in any way before purchase.

4c. Best Mate Content

All trademarks, brand names, logos, site design, and copy on bestmatestudio.com are the property of Best Mate Studio LLC. You may not use them without written permission.

5. AI-Generated Content Disclosure

Best Mate portraits are created using generative AI technology. Results may vary depending on the quality of your uploaded photo, breed characteristics, and the specific concept selected. We cannot guarantee an exact likeness to your pet. The three portrait options we generate represent the best outputs from your photo for your chosen concept.

If you are unhappy with the results before purchase, you may upload a different photo and generate again. See our Refund Policy for what happens after purchase.

6. The Generate-Before-Pay Model

We show you watermarked previews of your portrait before asking you to pay. This is a core part of how Best Mate works. By generating portraits, you agree that:

• Preview images are watermarked and held for 3 days from generation.
• After 3 days, previews are permanently deleted. We cannot recover them.
• Generating portraits does not create any obligation to purchase.
• Generating portraits repeatedly (beyond reasonable personal use) is prohibited.

7. Pricing and Payment

All prices are shown in US dollars. Prices include the cost of generation and, where applicable, production and shipping of physical goods. Shipping costs for print orders are calculated at checkout.

Payment is processed by Shopify Payments. We accept major credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay. By entering payment details, you authorise Best Mate to charge the amount displayed at the time of purchase.

8. Prohibited Uses

You may not use Best Mate to:

• Generate content that is obscene, illegal, or harmful.
• Circumvent rate limits or abuse the generation system.
• Scrape, copy, or systematically extract content from the Site.
• Attempt to reverse-engineer or access non-public parts of the Site.
• Use the service to generate training data for any AI system.
• Generate portraits of humans (the service is for pets only).

We reserve the right to block access and cancel orders from users who violate these conditions.

9. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS." WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS, BE ERROR-FREE, OR PRODUCE PORTRAITS TO ANY SPECIFIC STANDARD.

AI-generated results are inherently variable. While we work hard to ensure high-quality outputs, we cannot guarantee a perfect likeness, specific compositional elements, or artistic results beyond what is shown in the watermarked preview.

10. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, BEST MATE STUDIO LLC SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR THE ORDER IN QUESTION.

11. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of the service shall first be attempted to be resolved through direct communication with us at support@bestmatestudio.com. If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, it shall be resolved by binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association, conducted in Raleigh, North Carolina.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email or by a notice on the Site. Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

13. Contact

For any questions about these Terms: