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Clowns threatened with lawsuits
Front-page story in the San Jose Mercury News: No clowning around in threatened lawsuit.
Happy the Clown is sad -- and looking for a good attorney.A New York law firm is threatening to sue Happy and other clowns if they don't stop dressing as purple dinosaurs or red dogs in their shows at children's birthday parties. Those characters, the firm alleges, are too much like Barney and Clifford the Dog.
And no more Mr. Conductor or Bob the Builder look-alikes either.
``I was crying,'' said Sari Mitchell, the person behind Happy the Clown, who's also president of Most Unique Parties & Ponies, based in Boulder Creek. ``One clown threatened suicide but we talked him out of it.''
San Jose Mercury News: Clowns: Send in the lawyers.
Clifford the Dog belongs at the library -- not at children's birthday parties, according to the company that owns rights to the big red canine.Scholastic Inc., a $2 billion-a year publishing and media company, is one of the firms threatening to sue some small Bay Area clown companies for depicting Clifford and other characters at children's birthday parties without permission.
``It's important for us to protect our valuable property rights,'' said Kyle Good, vice president for corporate communications for Scholastic. ``If Clifford is being presented outside our guidelines, it can become a very uncomfortable position for children as well.''
The clown companies received letters recently from Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP, a New York law firm that represents Scholastic as well as the owners of other popular children's characters such as Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine and Barney the Dinosaur.
To settle without going to court, the letter says the clowns should stop using the costumes, surrender them, pay $100,000 and sign an agreement never to use the characters again. The firm says its clients could be awarded damages of up to $150,000 per character if it wins a court case.
I explored this topic in Darknet -- sad to see that nothing has changed.
July 26, 2006 at 12:01 PM in Digital rights & copyright | Permalink
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» ZeroLogik - 031 - 08.03.2006 from ZeroLogik
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Tracked on Aug 3, 2006 3:26:43 PM
Comments
This lawfirm makes these lawyers look bad and they are harming the reputations of the very characters they pretend to want to protect. Parents will be turned off by greedy dinosaurs and other characters. It is a malicious, opportunistic attack on performers wh can't afford tod defend themselves in court.
Posted by: Paul | Aug 2, 2006 4:15:43 PM
My understanding is that the remedy for intellectual property infringement is usually an injunction against future infringement. No injunction against these clowns is necessary if they stop selling these characters. Further legal action on behalf of the plaintiff beyond their initial correspondence could be construed as malicious or opportunistic in the eyes of the law, which in itself could tarnish the reputation of the very characters they claim to want to protect.
Posted by: Roger | Aug 2, 2006 5:20:08 PM
