Pony Talk > Pony Corral
Resin Moulds & Hasbro Design Patents
jillrose:
This is all very helpful stuff!! Thanks so much everyone :lol:
jillrose:
--- Quote from: Cobblestone on November 14, 2021, 07:12:50 PM ---At least one person is already doing this (Clipper) so while I’m not personally sure, it would seem hasbro hasn’t been bothered enough by it to take action? Or perhaps removing the hasbro mark puts reproductions into a gray area because hasbro has always been fine with the customizing community, as far as I know.
--- End quote ---
Who is Clipper - how can I contact her? :) Is s/he here on the forum, and/or HQG1C?
lovesbabysquirmy:
--- Quote from: jillrose on November 16, 2021, 03:00:57 PM ---
--- Quote from: Cobblestone on November 14, 2021, 07:12:50 PM ---At least one person is already doing this (Clipper) so while I’m not personally sure, it would seem hasbro hasn’t been bothered enough by it to take action? Or perhaps removing the hasbro mark puts reproductions into a gray area because hasbro has always been fine with the customizing community, as far as I know.
--- End quote ---
Who is Clipper - how can I contact her? :) Is s/he here on the forum, and/or HQG1C?
--- End quote ---
Clipper is a He :)
here is the subforum: http://mlparena.com/index.php/board,199.0.html
a good conversation thread: http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,397529.0.html
LadyMoondancer:
--- Quote from: jillrose on November 14, 2021, 05:13:37 PM ---Hi pony friends!
Quick question: I'm interested in getting into resin crafting, because I love things like custom Li'l Litters babies and custom Petite Ponies. I've seen resin artists producing these for sale, and am interested in creating some of my own - sales, TBD! :)
However, my only concern is whether or not commercial reproduction of Hasbro's design violates any design patents?? Or, have their patents on these early 90s toys long since expired?
I guess I'm hoping there may be a MLP fan here who is also a laywer :)
--- End quote ---
First, I'm not a lawyer so there are just based on my own fandom observations. ;)
Is it strictly legal? No. But will Hasbro care? Probably not! There are so many third party Transformers toy companies that BigBadToystore has it's own category for them and I've never heard of Hasbro moving against them. And let me tell you, a lot of them are really blatant. Like it will LITERALLY be a Starscream or Bumblebee figure, except renamed "War Shriek" and "Yellow Stinger" or something.
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Hey, that's a nice figure of Megatron HYNKEL. His name's Hynkel.
. . . wow, they really copied the G1 Transformers packaging and artwork, huh?
Ahem. :P
The only cease-and-desists I've heard of is Hasbro sending a C&D to the "MLP Fighting Is Magic" video game, which the creators foolishly took to E3 or Pax (can't remember which.) At that point Hasbro basically HAD to act, to assert themselves and protect their brand. (On that note, if any well-meaning person says "You should just ask Hasbro for permission :)", IGNORE THEM. That is bad advice. Once you directly bring your activities to Hasbro's attention, they have to act against you to protect their IP.)
The other case I've seen is Hasbro sending C&Ds to a couple G4 plushie makers. I honestly don't know why they did that, since custom plushie makers hardly seem like a threat to Hasbro's mass produced plushies . . . ?
But anyway, if Hasbro does take exception to your activity, the most that will happen is they'll send you a C&D saying "Hey, stop it." They aren't going to throw you in jail or anything.
Don't label the stuff you're selling as "My Little Pony" / MLP. That seems to be a big no-no. I've never seen a third-party "Transformers" company use the real name (of the brand or the individual robot), even when they're producing something as blatant as this:
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Optimus who? Um, excuse you, that is clearly . . . *squints at box* . . . Prop Sky Pillar. Duhhhh! :P
However they did describe Sky Prop Pillar as "G1 style" so I guess "G1" is okay?
Final note, I doubt any current Hasbro employees would recognize Li'l Litters as being Hasbro / MLP brand even if they were looking right at them. The people who worked there in the 80s / early 90s have all retired and the Li'l Litters aren't horses, soooo . . . ;)
WingsOfMasquerade:
Someone did encounter a trouble once so I wanted to mention
DONT BOX IT and NO PACKAGES
IDK how these TFs are getting away with boxes but I do remember years back someone was doing customs and packaging them in faux-g3 boxes and they got whacked. For whatever reason packaging things attracts a lot of negative attention so just leave the customs loose for safety.
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