1. About this guide

This guide explains who owns military uniforms, camouflage patterns and insignia, what that means for clothing made on Roblox, and what to do if you receive a takedown notice. It is written for any Roblox creator, and it is also the standard Castle & Shell holds itself to.

It focuses on U.S. law, because Roblox is a U.S. company and handles copyright complaints under U.S. law. Section 5 covers other countries, including the Soviet and Russian designs our Red Dawn Apparel storefront recreates.

Each rule is labeled so you can tell what kind of statement it is:

• Law what a law, regulation or court decision says, with a link to the source;
• Roblox rules what Roblox's own terms and policies say;
• Our policy how Castle & Shell handles things;
• Advice what we suggest. It is practical guidance, not a legal requirement.

2. Key terms

Copyright

The right to control copies and edits of an original creative work, such as a drawing or a clothing texture. It exists automatically as soon as the work is made.

Public domain

Material that no one holds a copyright in, so anyone may copy it. In the U.S. this includes work made by federal employees as part of their jobs.

Derivative work

A new work based on an existing one, such as an edited texture. Its copyright only covers what was added.

Trademark

A name, logo or symbol that tells people who a product comes from or who approves it.

Likelihood of confusion

The main test for trademark infringement: whether people are likely to be confused about who made, sponsors or approves something.

Insignia

Official badges, emblems and similar marks of rank, unit or service.

Takedown notice

A formal complaint asking a platform to remove material. Copyright takedowns follow a process set by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Counter-notice

The uploader's formal reply to a copyright takedown, saying the material was removed by mistake.

3. U.S. government designs

Three separate kinds of protection can apply to the same uniform. Knowing which is which is most of the battle.

	Copyright	Trademark	Insignia laws
Protects	Original artwork, including patterns and textures	Names, logos, emblems and other signs of who is behind something	Official badges, insignia and decorations
U.S. government designs	Not protected, unless a copyright was transferred to the government	The military services own many, from seals and wordmarks to unit and rank insignia	Covered by 18 U.S.C. §701 and, for the Army, 32 C.F.R. Part 507
Typical problem	Copying or editing someone's artwork	Use likely to confuse people about who made or approves an item	Making likenesses of insignia beyond what the regulations allow
On Roblox	DMCA takedown	Trademark complaint (registered marks only)	Enforced by the government, not through a Roblox process

Copyright: no protection for government work

Law Work made by a federal officer or employee as part of their official duties is not protected by U.S. copyright (17 U.S.C. §105, with the definition in §101). But the government can still own copyrights that are transferred to it, for example by a contractor, so a design used by the military is not automatically a government work.

Trademarks: not public domain

Law The military services own trademarks and can license them (10 U.S.C. §2260). The Army Trademark Licensing Program covers Army seals, emblems, unit and rank insignia, badges, tabs and wordmarks, and says these marks are not in the public domain: the lack of copyright in government work does not apply to trademarks. It requires a license for goods and services using its marks, and says it does not license intangible goods, which would include virtual clothing.

Law Trademark infringement and false endorsement are judged by whether a use is likely to cause confusion about who made, sponsors or approves something (15 U.S.C. §1114, §1125(a)). The trademark owner has to prove that (KP Permanent Make-Up v. Lasting Impression I, 2004). Liability does not depend on the owner having complained first, although whether and when to enforce is up to the owner.

Insignia: their own laws

Law It is a federal offense to make, sell or possess official insignia, or imitations of them, or to make prints or images in their likeness, except as authorized by regulations (18 U.S.C. §701). For the Army, those regulations are 32 C.F.R. Part 507:

• Photographs and prints of Army insignia are allowed if they don't discredit the Army and aren't used to deceive anyone about their status (§507.9(a)).
• Imitations need written approval from the Army Trademark Licensing Program (§507.9(b)).
• Commercial products may not include decorations, service medals, ribbons or lapel buttons, and may only use badges or organizational insignia with written permission (§507.10).

We know of no court applying these rules to clothing in a video game. Courts have upheld §701 where insignia were used to deceive people (United States v. Goeltz, 1975).

Law The laws on who may wear a U.S. uniform (10 U.S.C. §771 and 18 U.S.C. §702) are about physically wearing one. We found nothing applying them to avatars.

What this means in practice

Advice Recreating a uniform's general look, such as its cut, colors, pockets and fit, is the lowest-risk part of the work. The sensitive parts are official seals, service logos, wordmarks such as "U.S. ARMY", unit and rank insignia, badges, and above all medals and decorations. Including them for historical accuracy is common on Roblox, but it is not licensed, and the owner may ask for removal at any time. Never use them as your own branding, as a selling point in item names or thumbnails, or in a way that suggests official approval.

4. Camouflage patterns

Law Very simple, common patterns are not protected by copyright (Copyright Office Circular 33), but a detailed, original camouflage pattern can be. Who owns a pattern varies:

Pattern	Who claims rights	What we could verify
MultiCam	Crye Precision LLC (trademark); Lineweight LLC, its sister company (copyright)	Registered MULTICAM trademarks, including for clothing. In 2024 a federal court found the pattern original enough for copyright and ordered a seller to stop using it while the case continued (Crye Precision v. Concealed Carrier). Actively enforced.
MARPAT	U.S. Marine Corps	Registered MARPAT trademarks, and U.S. Patent 6,805,957 on the uniform's pattern and design, including the embedded Marine Corps emblem. A 2010 GAO report says the Corps holds the patent to stop commercial copying. The patent may have expired; we could not confirm.
OCP (Scorpion)	U.S. Army	Adopted by the Army in 2014. We found no official statement on who owns the pattern or whether others may reproduce it.
UCP	U.S. Army	Retired by the Army in 2019. We found no ownership claim.
Russian patterns (Flora, Berezka, Butan, Digital Flora)	None found	We found no trademark, design or court record for these. That means none were found, not that none exist: Russia can protect camouflage as an industrial design.

Making your own camouflage

Lookalikes of MultiCam and similar patterns are everywhere on Roblox, and many creators want to make them. Here is where the line is.

Law Copyright protects a pattern's particular shapes and the way they are arranged. It does not protect the idea of camouflage, a type of camouflage, or a general color scheme (17 U.S.C. §102(b)), and "mere variations of… coloring" cannot be copyrighted (37 C.F.R. §202.1).

In the 2024 MultiCam case, the court said there are "hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to express the idea of camouflage" for multiple environments. It pointed to other patterns that use the same browns, tans, creams and greens yet look very different. What it protected was MultiCam's own set of more than a hundred hand-drawn shapes, and how they are grouped and layered (Crye Precision v. Concealed Carrier).

Law In the same case:

• How copies are judged: by whether an ordinary observer would recognize the new pattern as taken from the original.
• Small changes didn't help: slightly different shades and small changes to some shapes were not enough.
• Seeing it is assumed: because MultiCam is so widely seen, the court could assume the copier had seen it.
• The name counts too: simply listing products under the color option "Multicam" was found likely to confuse buyers, because the name is a registered trademark.

Advice Lots of copies on Roblox show how popular a pattern is, not that copying it is allowed. Each copy is judged on its own, and the owner can act against any of them at any time. We don't know of Crye acting against Roblox items, but the number of copies doesn't protect any one of them.

Advice To make a multi-terrain pattern of your own:

1. Start from a blank canvas. Draw your own shapes. Don't trace, sample or scan the real pattern, a photo of real fabric or another creator's texture, and don't keep one underneath as a guide.
2. Pick any general palette. Browns, tans, greens and creams, and the idea of soft layered shapes, are free for everyone.
3. Make the shapes and their arrangement yours. Their outlines, sizes, grouping and layering are what copyright protects.
4. Compare side by side. Put your pattern next to the original. If an ordinary person would think one came from the other, keep changing it. Recoloring, blurring, pixelating or shrinking a copy doesn't make it yours.
5. Keep your working files. Layers and dated files are your evidence that you made the pattern independently.
6. Give it your own name. Call it something like "multi-terrain camouflage". Don't use MULTICAM or MARPAT in names, descriptions or color options, even in phrases like "MultiCam-style".

Advice If you want the real pattern, the only safe route is written permission from its owner. Crye's MultiCam FAQ covers licenses for fabric printers and says nothing about video games, so ask them directly at info@multicampattern.com. Treat the rest of the MultiCam family (Tropic, Arid, Alpine and Black) and the national patterns Crye lists, such as British MTP, with the same care. All of this applies to Castle & Shell as much as to anyone.

5. Soviet, Russian and other designs

Russian law

Law In Russia, state symbols and signs, such as flags, coats of arms, orders and banknotes, are not protected by copyright (Russian Civil Code, Article 1259(6)), and they cannot be registered as trademarks except with the authorities' consent as an unprotected element (Article 1231.1). We could not confirm whether Soviet-era symbols, or military insignia such as shoulder boards, count as state symbols today.

Law The Russian Ministry of Defense owns registered trademarks for its "Army of Russia" (Армия России) star logo, Nos. 515547 to 515550, and it and its licensed supplier, Voentorg, have taken sellers of unlicensed merchandise to court (Pravo.ru, in Russian). We found no Ministry trademark covering insignia or uniforms in general. Advice Don't use the "Army of Russia" logo or name.

Countries that restrict Soviet symbols

Law Some countries restrict the hammer and sickle, the red star and other Soviet symbols:

• Lithuania bans public display and distribution of Soviet flags and emblems, the hammer and sickle and the red five-pointed star, with exemptions such as art, education and museums (Administrative Code, Art. 524).
• Latvia bans Soviet and Nazi symbols at public events (2013).
• Ukraine bans making, distributing and publicly using communist and Nazi symbols, including souvenirs, with exemptions such as historical reconstruction (Law 317-VIII).
• Estonia penalizes displaying symbols in a way that supports aggression or war crimes; it has no general ban (2022).
• Poland's Constitutional Tribunal struck down a ban on objects carrying totalitarian symbols in 2011, but promoting a totalitarian system is still a crime (K 11/10).

These laws were written for real-world display and goods, and we know of none being applied to Roblox clothing. Nazi symbols are restricted much more widely, for example in Russia (Administrative Code, Art. 20.3).

Roblox's rules

Roblox rules Roblox's Community Standards ban content that supports or glorifies violent extremist groups, their ideology or their iconography, and restrict content about political parties. Its Marketplace Policy asks creators not to make political items. Historical uniforms are allowed, but they must not be used to glorify extremism or atrocities.

6. Other creators' work, including ours

Law A creator's original artwork, such as a clothing texture, is protected by copyright automatically (17 U.S.C. §102(a)). Only the owner may copy it or make edited versions of it (§106).

Law When artwork is based on a public domain design, its copyright only covers the new material the artist added. The design underneath stays free for everyone (§103(b); Circular 14). In practice:

• You can make your own version of the same uniform, from your own references.

• You can't copy, trace or edit someone else's texture or template without permission.

Roblox rules Roblox's Terms of Use say you must own or control the rights to anything you upload, even if it's off sale. They also say you must not copy or modify another creator's item without their express written permission. From November 1, 2026, a group's owner is also responsible for all content associated with the group (updated Terms).

Our policy For edited versions of our clothing, see our Customs Guidelines.

7. What Castle & Shell does

Our policy

• We make our own artwork from reference material. We claim copyright only in our own artwork, never in the uniforms, insignia or patterns themselves.
• We don't use official seals, medals or service logos as our branding, and we don't claim to be endorsed by any military or government.
• If a rights holder asks us to remove something, we remove it promptly and keep a record.
• We send removal requests only for copies of our own work, in good faith, and only after contacting the creator first.

8. Takedowns on Roblox

How complaints work

Law A copyright takedown notice must include the sender's signature, the work they own, where the copy is, their contact details, a good-faith statement that the use isn't authorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that they are authorized to act (17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3)).

Roblox rules Roblox's Intellectual Property Guidelines set out its process:

• Copyright: send a notice to copyright_agent@roblox.com, or, if you are 18 or over, use Rights Manager. Under-13s must file through a parent or guardian.
• Trademark: a separate process through trademark_agent@roblox.com, for registered trademarks only. Roblox does not mediate trademark disputes.
• Repeat infringers: Roblox may suspend or close accounts that repeatedly infringe.

If you receive a takedown

Advice

1. Don't re-upload the item. Re-uploading can count against you as a repeat infringer.
2. Read the notice: who sent it, and which right they claim.
3. If it's right, leave the item down and stop making similar ones. A request from a government agency or a brand owner is best acted on quickly.
4. Keep records: a copy of the notice, and your source files with dates.
5. If it's a mistake, contact the sender, or send a counter-notice (below).
6. If money or a lawsuit is mentioned, get advice from a lawyer before replying.

If it's a mistake: counter-notices

Law For a copyright removal, you can send Roblox a counter-notice at copyright_agent@roblox.com. It must include (§512(g)(3)):

• your signature;
• what was removed, and where it was;
• a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe it was removed by mistake or misidentification;
• your name, address and phone number;
• your consent to the jurisdiction of a U.S. federal court.

The platform passes it to the person who complained. By law, it restores the material 10 to 14 business days after receiving the counter-notice, unless the complainant first tells it they have filed a lawsuit. Roblox says it generally restores content within 14 business days.

Be careful: your contact details go to the person who complained, and anyone who knowingly makes a false claim in a notice or a counter-notice can be liable for damages (§512(f)).

Roblox rules For a trademark removal, there is no counter-notice. Appeal by email to trademark_agent@roblox.com.

If we find a copy of our work

Our policy We contact the creator first and explain the problem. They then have 7 days to remove or change it. If nothing changes, or the copy is being sold or shared, we send Roblox a copyright removal request. The Customs Guidelines explain this in more detail.

9. Good practice

Advice

• Work from references such as photos, regulations and real items, not from other creators' files.
• Keep your working files, with dates, so you can show your work is your own.
• Leave out official seals, service logos, wordmarks, medals and decorations where you can, and never use them as your branding.
• Keep protected names such as MULTICAM and MARPAT out of item names and descriptions.
• Making a camouflage pattern? Draw your own shapes from scratch, compare it side by side with the original, and give it your own name (see Making your own camouflage).
• Make it clear you are not official. A line such as "Not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Army" helps, but it does not make an infringing use lawful.
• Follow Roblox's Terms of Use, Community Standards and Marketplace Policy, and check them now and then. They change, including on November 1, 2026.
• When in doubt, ask the rights holder. For questions about our work, email pointcastle@castleshell.com.

10. Sources

All checked on October 5, 2026.

U.S. law

• 17 U.S.C. §101, §102, §103, §105, §106, §512: copyright, and the DMCA process
• 15 U.S.C. §1114, §1125: trademark infringement and false endorsement
• 10 U.S.C. §2260: licensing of military trademarks
• 18 U.S.C. §701: official badges and insignia; §702 and 10 U.S.C. §771: wearing uniforms
• 32 C.F.R. Part 507: Army rules on heraldic items

Courts and the Copyright Office

• KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc. v. Lasting Impression I, Inc., 543 U.S. 111 (2004)
• United States v. Goeltz, 513 F.2d 193 (10th Cir. 1975)
• Crye Precision LLC v. Concealed Carrier LLC, No. 23-CV-4469 (E.D.N.Y. 2024)
• Copyright Office Circular 14 (derivative works) and Circular 33 (works not protected by copyright)
• 37 C.F.R. §202.1: material not subject to copyright, including ideas and mere variations of coloring

Official pages and records

• U.S. Army Trademark Licensing Program
• MultiCam FAQ (Crye Precision)
• U.S. Department of War (Defense) Branding and Trademarks, and its Trademark Licensing Guide
• USPTO records: MULTICAM (85902531, 86161754); MARPAT (90656991, 86761335)
• U.S. Patent 6,805,957 (MARPAT) and GAO-10-669R (2010)
• U.S. Army on adopting OCP (2014) and retiring UCP (2019)

Roblox

• Intellectual Property Guidelines and Rights Manager
• Terms of Use, and the updated Terms from November 1, 2026
• Community Standards and Marketplace Policy

Other countries

• Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Part Four (WIPO Lex, English)
• Rospatent decision on the "Army of Russia" trademarks and a Pravo.ru report on their enforcement (both in Russian; the Rospatent site may not load outside Russia)
• Lithuania: Administrative Code, Art. 524; Latvia: Saeima, 2013; Ukraine: Law 317-VIII; Estonia: ERR, 2022; Poland: Constitutional Tribunal, K 11/10

11. Version history

Version	Date	Changes
2.0	Oct 5, 2026	Rewritten in plain language and checked against primary sources. Corrections: Removed the "priority basis" idea that creators may use designs until challenged. Infringement doesn't depend on a complaint. The rule on derivative works now cites 17 U.S.C. §103(b) and Circular 14, instead of Circular 31, which is about a different topic. KP Permanent is now described accurately. The description of 32 C.F.R. §507.10 is corrected. Recommended response times are now marked as advice, not legal deadlines. Added: insignia laws, the Army's position on virtual goods, camouflage patterns and how to make your own, Soviet and Russian designs, Roblox's current processes, counter-notices, key terms and a full source list. Removed the reference to a C&S legal team.
1.0	Mar 28, 2025	First published.