Many things can be copyrighted - from novels, poems and plays, to songs, music and performance. But fonts can – and very often are - copyrighted. By “font” we mean the design of a typeface.
And just to prove that, Font Brothers (yes, that is the name of the company) is suing Hasbro, the toy giant, for copyright infringement over its use of its Generation B font for Hasbro’s My Little Pony products. In the Complaint, the plaintiff claims that Hasbro failed to secure a license to use Generation B so it is using a “pirated font.”
Worse yet, Hasbro was not just using the pirated font itself. The font is being used by third parties that manufacture and sell My Little Pony-branded goods. More worse than that, Font Brothers claims that Hasbro was repeatedly notified of its infringement of the Font Brothers font, and it did not have the courtesy to even respond.
Hasbro finally got it when the lawsuit was filed, at which point the company quickly ceased use of the font at its website. The problem, of course, is all that My Little Pony merchandise in supply chain that has the infringed font blazoned across it.
Our 2ȼ: Congratulation to Font Brothers for giving the company such an effective name. Bravo! And shame on Hasbro for not simply taking a license for the font in the first place.