FA+
Shop
Pinkfong sent me a cease-and-desist!
9 months ago
General
I've been pushed around the internet for much of my time on here, but this is probably the biggest kick in the face I've ever had, when it comes to my art and characters.
Early this morning, I woke up to an email on my phone. This email contained a cease-and-desist letter, from none other than "The Pinkfong Company". The cease-and-desist which was correctly addressed to yours truly (a.k.a. ToonThick), was in relation to my character "Thickshake Tanuki". Pinkfong says that my "Thickshake" looks too much like their "Pinkfong".
Pinkfong are best known for "Baby Shark", but their mascot is the character which goes by the name "Pinkfong"; a null pink fox with a gold crown and an oversized gold star pendant. My character "Thickshake" is a pink tanuki (tanuki are related to foxes), but instead of white tones, it has dark tones. Thickshake did originally have a gold pendant when he was first created in 2021, but that was replaced with a yellow shirt in 2023. And whilst I know of Pinkfong (the character), I didn't think this would cause a big problem.
A few years ago, someone on Twitter once compared Thickshake Tanuki to "The Rodfellows", which resulted in me giving Thickshake a number of redesigns. But now, I'm being targeted by a heavyweight whose core business is brain rot! I've drawn Thickshake many times over the last 4 years, and no one has ever compared it to Pinkfong! Now, I have Pinkfong right behind me!
Pinkfong isn't the only well-known anthro animal that's coloured pink. There's also Amy Rose from "Sonic the Hedgehog", along with Sonia from "Sonic Underground". Plus, there are numerous Care Bears that are pink! I thought Thickshake Tanuki was a unique character of mine; even more unique since he's male, but Pinkfong is having none of it; they're only interested in brainwashing people, and bullying yours truly!
I shouldn't have to surrender to Pinkfong, but I'm being forced to. I'm otherwise facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit if I didn't abide by their demands. Under my current circumstances, this is the last thing I want.
And so, with great regret, I'm announcing the retirement of Thickshake Tanuki after nearly 4 years, effective immediately. Many people might think Thickshake is my fursona, but I do have "Seb" as my mascot. I don't really have a fursona, and if I did, it would be either "Stacks the Cat" or "Rattray Rat".
I haven't gotten much sleep at all since I got this email containing the cease-and-desist, and I still have a full day of work ahead of me. I'm not sure if I want to do anything at this point. I would probably have to remove every pic I have with Thickshake from all my socials.
I'm not in a good mood right now, so I may temporarily deactivate my Bluesky and FurAffinity later.
Thank you for reading.
This just seems like a company abusing the copyright laws to get what they want, and it's disgusting. Threatening to ruin someone's life over an OC, and even if they did have grounds to issue a cease and desist, you're not profiting off the IP and Thickshake is an OC. Something doesn't seem right about this, it feels sketchy.
I'm sorry this happened to you. But I wouldn't do anything drastic, like deactivate your accounts, or feel like you need to leave the fandom/internet. Because if you do, you're going to end up regretting it, especially since in FA's case with account deactivation, there's a three week period and if you pass that deadline, your account can't be recovered, and it suck to see 900 art pieces to disappear.
This is asinine and you do not deserve to have this happening to you. I wish you the best and hope you don't end up deleting so much of your own character over this abuse.
https://bsky.app/profile/toonthick....../3llpr3isj4c2w
https://t.me/ToonThickAlley/1852
Thickshake did have a gold pendant like Pinkfong at the time, and their legal team likely took action against me after seeing this or other old pics of Thickshake.
This is nothing less than a blatant abuse of copyright law! Pinkfong clearly wants to suck the life out of ToonThick, by claiming that Thickshake Tanuki's design is in violation of their IP.
Thickshake's design was originally based on a Discord mascot idea I had, not the Pinkfong mascot.