Legal

DMCA Policy

Last Updated: August 8, 2026

Big Chess BG Ltd (registration number 208212605, EU VAT BG208212605, registered in Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria, European Union) ("Big Chess," "we," "us," or "our") respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects everyone who uses our Services to do the same. This DMCA Policy explains how we handle claims of copyright infringement relating to the BigChess mobile applications for iOS and Android, the web-based game at bigchess10.com, our online shop selling premium physical chess sets, and all related content, features, and materials (collectively, the "Services").

This policy is designed to comply with the notice-and-takedown framework of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512) ("DMCA") and to provide a clear, fair process for rights holders and users alike. It supplements, and does not replace, Section 6.5 ("Copyright Complaints") of our Terms of Use; where this policy provides additional detail or a more specific procedure, this policy governs copyright takedown matters.

1. Purpose and Scope

This policy applies to claims that content available through the Services infringes a copyright owned or controlled by you or a party you are authorized to represent. It sets out how to submit a valid takedown notice, how we respond to notices, how a user whose content was removed can submit a counter-notification, and how we address repeat infringement. It does not apply to trademark disputes, patent disputes, right-of-publicity claims, defamation, privacy complaints, or other non-copyright matters; see Section 12 below for how to raise those instead.

2. Content We Protect

Big Chess BG Ltd owns or licenses copyrights in a wide range of material made available through the Services, including:

The BigChess game software, source code, object code, and underlying algorithms;
Visual assets, including chessboard designs, piece designs, user interface elements, icons, animations, and the overall look and feel of the Services;
Audio assets, including sound effects and music used within the applications;
The text, layout, and design of bigchess10.com and any other websites we operate;
Marketing and promotional materials, including our logos, product photography, and advertising copy; and
Documentation, help articles, and other written content we publish.

If you believe any of this material, or other original content we own or control, has been copied or distributed without authorization on a third-party site or service, this policy can also help you understand the process, although a notice under this policy addresses only content that appears within the Services themselves.

3. Chess Rules, Moves, and Notation Are Not Protected by Copyright

Because BigChess is a chess platform, we want to be clear about what copyright does not cover. The rules of chess and of the BigChess 10x10 variant, individual moves, board positions, opening theory, general strategy and tactics, and standard notation systems (such as algebraic notation and PGN, Portable Game Notation) are functional and factual in nature and are not protected by copyright anywhere in the world. A DMCA notice cannot be used to claim ownership over a chess opening, a sequence of moves, a board position, or the outcome of a game. We will not act on takedown notices that attempt to assert copyright over such public-domain elements of chess. This limitation does not extend to original commentary, annotations, artwork, or software that a third party has independently created and that we may have used without permission — those remain properly subject to this policy.

4. Filing a DMCA Takedown Notice

If you have a good faith belief that content available through the Services infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to enforce, you may submit a takedown notice to our designated agent (see Section 5). To be effective under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), your notice must be in writing and include all of the following:

4.1. Required Elements

A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner's behalf;
Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple works are covered by a single notice, a representative list of those works;
Identification of the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate it within the Services (for example, a screen name, in-app location, URL, or screenshot);
Your contact information, including your name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address;
A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

4.2. Incomplete Notices

A notice that omits any of the elements above may not qualify as a valid DMCA notice and may delay or prevent our ability to act on it. We may, at our discretion, contact you to request the missing information.

5. Our Designated Copyright Agent

We have designated the following agent to receive notices of claimed copyright infringement relating to the Services:

Big Chess BG Ltd
Attn: DMCA Designated Agent
Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria, European Union
Email: dmca@bigchess10.com

Please send takedown notices, counter-notifications, and other communications related to this policy to the email address above. Using this dedicated address, rather than our general support address, helps us route and respond to copyright matters as quickly as possible.

6. What Happens After We Receive a Valid Notice

Upon receipt of a takedown notice that substantially complies with the requirements of Section 4, we will generally take the following steps:

We will review the notice to confirm it identifies specific material within the Services and satisfies the required elements.
Where the notice is valid and the material is within the Services, we will remove or disable access to the identified material.
We will make reasonable efforts to notify the user who posted or is otherwise responsible for the material that it has been removed and the reason for the removal, and we will provide that user with a copy of the notice (redacted as appropriate) or a summary of its contents.
We will inform the user of their right to submit a counter-notification under Section 7 if they believe the material was removed in error or as a result of misidentification.

We aim to act on valid notices as expeditiously as reasonably possible. Response times may vary depending on the complexity of the claim and the volume of notices we receive, but we do not commit to a fixed number of hours or days for review or action, other than the statutory counter-notification window described in Section 7.

7. Counter-Notification Procedure

If material you posted or that is associated with your account was removed in response to a takedown notice and you believe the removal was a mistake or a result of misidentification of the material, you may submit a counter-notification to our designated agent under Section 5.

7.1. Required Elements

Your counter-notification must include:

Your physical or electronic signature;
Identification of the material that was removed or disabled and its location within the Services before it was removed or disabled;
A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification;
Your name, address, and telephone number; and
A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if you are outside the United States, for any judicial district in which we may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original takedown notice or their agent.

7.2. What Happens Next

If we receive a valid counter-notification, we will forward a copy to the party who submitted the original takedown notice. Unless that party informs us that they have filed a court action seeking an order to restrain the user from engaging in the infringing activity, we will restore the removed material, or cease disabling access to it, no less than 10 and no more than 14 business days following receipt of the counter-notification, in accordance with 17 U.S.C. § 512(g). We may, at our discretion, take additional time where reasonably necessary to verify the counter-notification or to coordinate with the parties involved.

8. Reporting Infringement Through Apple and Google

Because our mobile applications are distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play, rights holders may also choose to report infringing content directly to those platforms, in addition to or instead of contacting us:

Apple App Store: Apple maintains its own intellectual property complaint process, including a "Report a Claim of Infringement" form, for content distributed through the App Store.
Google Play: Google maintains its own copyright infringement reporting form for content distributed through Google Play.

Reports filed with Apple or Google are handled under each platform's own policies and timelines, which are outside our control. We encourage rights holders to contact us directly at dmca@bigchess10.com as well, so that we can investigate and, where appropriate, act on the underlying content within the Services.

9. Repeat Infringer Policy

In appropriate circumstances and at our discretion, we will suspend or terminate the accounts of users who are determined to be repeat infringers of the intellectual property rights of others, consistent with the account suspension and termination framework described in Section 14 of our Terms of Use. A user who is the subject of multiple valid, unrebutted takedown notices, or whose account is otherwise used repeatedly to infringe copyrighted material, may have their access to some or all of the Services restricted, suspended, or permanently terminated, regardless of whether a counter-notification was filed with respect to any individual notice.

10. Safe Harbor and Good-Faith Compliance

We intend to operate the Services in a manner consistent with the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA. Consistent with that framework, we do not have actual knowledge that material or activity on the Services is infringing, and where we obtain such knowledge or become aware of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent, we act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material. We maintain a designated agent to receive notices of claimed infringement, as described in Section 5, and we apply the repeat infringer policy described in Section 9. We note that, as of the date of this policy, our designated agent has not yet been registered in the U.S. Copyright Office's online directory of designated agents; we intend to complete that registration, and the absence of registration does not affect our commitment to promptly reviewing and acting on valid notices submitted under this policy.

11. Misrepresentation and False Claims

Please be aware that submitting a false or bad-faith takedown notice or counter-notification can carry serious legal consequences. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by us, or by a copyright owner or licensee, as a result of our relying on the misrepresentation. Before submitting a notice or counter-notification, please make sure you have a genuine, good faith belief in the statements you are making, and consider whether the material in question actually infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to enforce (bearing in mind, for example, the chess-content clarification in Section 3).

12. Trademark and Other Intellectual Property Complaints

This policy addresses copyright claims only. If you believe your trademark, patent, trade secret, right of publicity, or other non-copyright intellectual property right has been infringed through the Services, or if you have a complaint that does not fit the DMCA notice-and-takedown process described above (for example, concerns about impersonation, misleading use of the BigChess name or logo, or counterfeit physical products), please contact us at info@bigchess10.com with a description of your concern, and we will review it separately from this policy.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this DMCA Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our procedures, or our Services. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the bottom of this page and, where appropriate, provide additional notice through the Services. Your continued use of the Services after any changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

14. Contact Information

For DMCA takedown notices and counter-notifications, please contact our designated agent:

Big Chess BG Ltd
Email: dmca@bigchess10.com
Registered office: Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria, European Union

For all other questions about this policy, or for intellectual property matters outside the scope of the DMCA, please contact us at info@bigchess10.com.