Hasbro Claims Rights to word "Brony", C&D's usage.



All hands on deck.

According to MandoMommy (the mother of #HorseFamous musician Andy "MandoPony" Stein), Hasbro has begun making copyright claims on the word "Brony". This marks an aggressive move on behalf of Hasbro, as they have attempted to take legal ownership of the word that adult fans of My Little Pony created to define themselves on the /co/ board of 4chan nearly 4 years ago.

It's the end times. More info below.

According to Mandomommy, she was made aware of the claim by Zazzle, who denied her from uploading a product as it bore the "Brony" descriptive tag. The removal notice is seen below.

This marks the first known time to our staff that Hasbro has laid claim to the word "Brony" which was used for the first time in their marketing in the promotional song-parody "Equestria Girls" over 2 years ago.


MandoMommy says that Zazzle recieved the notice from Hasbro themselves.

Update:
For those of you that sell designs for the fandom, just make sure it’s okay to use the term “brony” in your search tags before you do it.  My conversations with Zazzle imply that they were contacted by Hasbro regarding the “violation”.
Just a head’s up folks….

 Thusfar nobody has been able to find a notice of the registration of the word "Brony" on the part of Hasbro.

If this proves to be true, it marks an enormous step for Hasbro as they begin to claim rights to exclusively fan-made creations and cultural aspects.







Note: The word "Brony" was invented on 4chan, which as a clearly laid out copyright policy for original works.



One of the Earliest known usages of the word "Brony":


Note: This is a screencap from another board known as "Plus4chan", which has it's own /co/ board, separate from the regular 4chan /co/ board. Though the word "brony" is known to have been used prior to this screencap on 4chan's /co/ there is little in the form of records of this. The earliest known recorded usage of "brony" on 4chan's /co/ dates back to this thread on 10/23/10, 2 days prior to the above screencap. The above screencap is regarded as the first significant usage of the term, as the original usage received little response.


Comments (67)

  1. Inb4 wwwarea shows up and claims this backs up his understanding of US copyright law.

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    1. .....OK I'll say it.

      You can't Copyright a damn name. Must be a fake, or a really, REALLY dumb lawyer.

      Also, I already knew you could never Copyright names.

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    2. First off, Brony is not a name. Second, this is about trademarking, not copyright.

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    3. Wut...
      First, Brony can be a legit name, like any random creative (Or even non-creative) name.
      Second, even if it's not a name, it can still be trademark.

      "What is a collective mark?

      A collective mark is any word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination thereof owned by a cooperative, an association, or other collective group or organization and used by its members to indicate the source of the goods or services."


      Third, well I don't see any "Trademark" claims over this. Just "Copyright", which doesn't make any sense.

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    4. It seems it worked for Hasbro, don't see why it wouldn't for everyone else. I'll sue all the people making t-shirt containing the word "gamer" and become rich.

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    5. "gamer" though, might be generic. Yet, Trademark wasn't originally designed to stop people from just wanting to share it I think. It was meant to stop fraud use or something..

      As for Hasbro, if they are claiming Copyright over a name or word, then I do think someone has to argue...

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    6. I think 'brony' is pretty generic in it's use nowadays, too. At least as generic as 'gamer'. Also, given that those terms are used to identify a group of people, I would assume that no one in their right mind would allow that to be trademarked. You can't just trademark people. Also because it would be unenforceable, seeing how many people already use it and have used it for 3.5 years.

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    7. You're like the Anton Chekhov of forum posts. Bravo.

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  2. I’m wondering if they’re merely searching for the "brony" tag to halt the sale of unofficial merch, rather than laying claim to the term itself.

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    1. Welcome to the Machine, ArrJaySketch~

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    2. Because assuming that Hasbro can register trademarks without having them listed makes FAR more sense!
      /sarcasm

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  3. Oh

    HELL

    naw...

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  4. It's happening.

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  5. This means war.

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  6. But... it's mandofaggot's mom... so who cares?

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    Replies
    1. Don't be a butt just because you don't like the guy. No need to be rude.

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    2. Yeah. I bet this will blow over in a few weeks.

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  7. Hasbro 1, Horse fuckers 0

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  8. If it is true, then it is the Brony-ism book of revelations...

    (Hahaha! I used the word Brony Hasbro. what 'yall mutha' fuckas think 'bout dat?

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  9. so I just consider myself a good fan

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  10. inb4 they start boycotting Hasbro

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  11. They can't claim copyright. You can't legally copyright a word, you can trademark it though. I've noticed that the only time that Hasbro actually sends anyone a C&D is when they are making money off of My Little Pony, that means that they are selling products commercially using intellectual property of Hasbro. If they weren't, it would be classified as "Fair use" and nothing would be done.

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    1. >Implying that Jan made money off of the Button Mash series

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    2. I think his videos had ads enabled on Youtube.

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    3. He made money on those videos, so yeah it's only normal that he got a C&D.

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    4. ... sure, they can legally sue a company for making money off of their franchise, but SERIOUSLY??
      *singsong voice* someones gonna see you in couuurrtt~

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  12. HorseCocks, please, do say you are trolling us again...

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  13. They keep squeezing us harder and harder, which kinda makes some sense considering bronies have kinda gotten huge and they don't want something horrendously bad to happen and wind up attached to their brand.
    But this is still fucking dumb.

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  14. Why do I get a feeling that someone is going to try and kill MKToon and CEO Brian Golder, if not try to bomb Hasbro Studios or Hasbro corporate?

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  15. the hasjew is real

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  16. HASBRO You can't do that! You've caused a Time Paradox! You've altered the past!

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  17. If it's trademarked, why does it not show up in a trademark search database, like TESS?

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  18. Wasn't the actual original brony post not on /co/ but on their backup board they had incase their thread got deleted.

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  19. Well the ride is over.

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  20. If this is real, than Hasbro is going to get themselves into some really deep shit.

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  21. Fake and super gay. Why would Hasbro career suicide themselves by doing this? Do they know about the tons of porn bronies shit out? That label is toxic.

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  22. It's like they're trying to claim ownership on bronies, we can't make music, OC's, even fucking images anymore because Hasbro tries to claim ownership on everything we do and create. It seems like to me they're just trying to use bronies as another way of making money. Because that's all they do, shower in fucking bills.

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    1. What?! Hasbro actually created an IP in order to make money? What kind of self-respecting company would do something as base and tawdry as "making money by any means possible"?

      Truly we are in the end times.

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    2. Truly, this fandom is full of far left libtards. Drevon is prime example of that. Go back to Occupy and cry more about being "oppressed by da man", faggots.

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    3. Guys its basically extortion. Most bronies are non-profit but put hard work in the publish their works for nothing but because they wanted to. To make money off of their work and not compensate them is unjustified. Yes this is different on fan made merchandise and any project that makes money. But ones that make music, art and animations, or anything else while the artist makes no money should not be used as a means for Hasbro to make money. Game Freak and Nintendo don't fine or make money off of people for their art of Pokémon, trademark or original, so why should it be ok if Hasbro does?

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    4. what he is saying is that Hasbro is claiming an IP based on a fanwork of an IP they do own. which is a bit far of a stretch. you cannot trademark a people group, nor copyright a people group. hence why Paramount Picture's attempted trademark of "trekkie" was shot down.

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    5. ... OMFG IDEA! Michael, you said that Paramount's attempt at trademarking trekkie was shot down, correct? well what if someone were to use that as an example for an attorney in order to shoot down attempts of Hasbro to do the same thing? That's a good idea, right? all we need is a lawyer.

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    6. But where are we going to find a lawyer who will stand up for a whole fandom?

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    7. We don't even need an attorney the trademark process includes the review by the trademark office of the term. Hasbro also has to identify what it is being used for. When it is discovered that it is a self identifying term for fans then the trademark will be denied.

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    8. Smart...
      >insert intrigued face here

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  23. you gotta be kidding me

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  24. bronies are one of the reasons to mlps success. now they are just getting too cocky

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  25. Hasbro, Might as well claim rights to YO MAMA !!

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  26. does this mean no BronyCon???!!! DX :(

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  27. Bronies could just start calling themselves man-colters, or pony bros, or mare men, or horsefuckers.

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    1. I say horsefuckers is the way to go, because I want Hasbro to trademark 'horefuckers'

      just to see what happens

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  28. Hahahahaha *Points and laughs at all of you*

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    1. Get back to your le epin steam group :^)

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  29. Isn't Zazzle the company that banned people making shirts with the letter pi on them, out of some strange belief that they could be sued? I don't think those guys are exactly experts on copyright law.

    http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/pi-symbol-trademark-controversy

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  30. I hope hasbro will change minds

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  31. We'll have to sue Hasbro, and I'm goddamn serious.

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  32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmnVvUR4Gtk

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  33. Well, looks like we're Equestrians from here on out.

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  34. Hasbro, I don't think that word means what you think it means.

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  35. THEY DO NOT FUCKING OWN THAT GODDAMN WORD. THIS IS NOT UP FOR DEBATE.

    GET SOME FUCKING LAWYERS AND SUE THE MOTHERFUCKING FUCK OUT OF HASBRO I WILL FUCKING PAY FOR IT.

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  36. Awwwwwww poor wittle zazzle is fucking jealous what a buncha fucking scumbags there trying to pin the the blame on hasbro

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  37. Meanwhile>>>

    Bill Gate claims Gamer as violation of copyright.


    *Atheist*
    *SARCASM*

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  38. Shut up trans faget

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  39. Wow... How can HASBRO copyright the word BRONY, when it WASN'T even THEIRS to BEGIN WITH?

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  40. Trademarks play an essential role in protecting consumers. Register a trademark for add your companies value and definitely it will be valuable for your brand.

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