• "Brony" Being Blocked by Zazzle for Infringement Claims by Hasbro


    Another oddity has popped up in the Intellectual Property world of pony. While none of this has yet been confirmed by Hasbro, it looks like the self-print merchandise website Zazzle is now blocking things with the term "Brony" in the tags. The mother of Mandopony released a string of tweets detailing her experience with this new policy change after her products were pulled without any sort of reason.

    Head on down below for the details!

    In response to her products seemingly disappearing, she fired off a note asking why they were pulled. Apparently it all revolved around the term "Brony" as shown in the images below:

    While Zazzle has had to pull pony merch in the past due to requests from Hasbro (as far back as 2011 at that), this is the first time "Brony" has been the reason.  Without an official response from Hasbro, we can't be completely sure if this is just a blanket "cover your ass" by Zazzle.  It is understandable to pull actual trademarked characters from the show from a site like this, but fandom words seem a little bit extreme. The fact that "The intellectual property right holder" made this request does point toward it being the hand of Hasbro though, and the specific "Brony" tag seems to indicate that they were targeting that word. 

    Hopefully it is all cleared up eventually! I'd recommend avoiding using the term if you plan on selling your home made stuff for now though.

    Thanks to Dashie, Benjamin, Raz, and everyone else for sending it!