Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat creators file lawsuit over Scribblenauts cameos
Posted by Joystiq May 02 2013 22:45 GMT in Scribblenauts Unlimited
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Nyan Cat creator Christopher Orlando Torres and Keyboard Cat's owner Charles Schmidt have filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit against Warner Bros. and 5th Cell over their creations' appearances in the Scribblenauts series.

The complaint, filed on April 22nd, alleges that developer 5th Cell did not seek permission to include either copyrighted character in their published products or in related promotional material. The original Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat videos have each been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube, making them "extremely valuable for commercial uses," according to the complaint.

"Plaintiffs claim that Warner Bros and 5th Cell's trademark infringement was willful and intentional and are requesting an award of treble damages and requesting the case be deemed exception under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a), thereby entitling Plaintiffs to an award of reasonable attorneys' fees," intellectual property-focused attorney blog Milord & Associates notes.

Plaintiffs Schmidt and Torres additionally seek an injunction against the sale of Scribblenauts products until the matter is resolved.

The Scribblenauts series allows players to summon a wide variety of memes during gameplay, for both practical purposes and comedic effect. Keyboard Cat has appeared in every series entry to date, while Nyan Cat is a more recent addition, appearing only in Scribblenauts Unlimited.


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wouldn't a reference/parody like this fall under fair use? also *crag* those guys, they are living proof that our current intellectual property laws breed the shittiest pieces of trash
Reply by Lord Crump May 03 2013 01:03 GMT
no, I don't see how this falls under fair-use. Unless it's different enough from the original image, but I don't think it is.
Reply by Francis May 03 2013 03:16 GMT
I would think that the legal requirement of actively enforcing their copyrights may be in doubt here if they took five years to register the copyrights in the first place and four years to get around to taking legal action against the Scribblenauts series.
Reply by Gold Prognosticus May 03 2013 11:21 GMT
The profits they lost to 5th Cell must have been astronomical.
Reply by MM May 03 2013 20:28 GMT
All that adsense money wasted
Reply by Super-Claus May 04 2013 00:08 GMT
I do think it's a little ridiculous but if someone used a scribblenauts character as a reference/parody i'm sure they'd sue straight away so I guess they have the right
Reply by Fracktail May 04 2013 02:49 GMT
Doubt it.
Reply by MM May 04 2013 03:51 GMT
parody is protected under fair use
also you're granted an automatic copyright upon creation of the work in the US, Gold; you just have to prove you created it
also why aren't the meme creators suing the millions of internet users who have copied/reproduced their memes without their consent (hint: copyright enforcement defeats the point behind memes)
i mean, seriously, this is a whole new level of stupid
Reply by Lord Crump May 04 2013 20:14 GMT
Nyan Cat isn't a parody though, its pretty much just an exact copy. Keyboard cat probably is though (since it looks nothing like the real one). And internet users aren't sued because they aren't making any money off of it.
Reply by Francis May 04 2013 20:54 GMT

whether or not you're making any money off it makes no difference under copyright law, though (this is why piracy is illegal)

also nyan cat in scribblenauts is in a completely different style from the nyan cat meme, especially in terms of facial structure; "ideas" aren't protected under intellectual property laws, so if Poptarts can't explicitly sue the creator of nyan cat for having a body shaped like a Poptart (it can be gotten away with by calling the body a "breakfast square" or something), i doubt the nyan cat creator can sue scribblenauts for having a "cat character with a body of a breakfast square that flies with rainbow exhaust"

unless, of course, the term "nyan cat" is trademarked--which is a much stronger legal protection than copyright, and which scribblenauts uses--then the nyan cat creators definitely have a case

Reply by Lord Crump May 04 2013 21:40 GMT
wow you created a retarded cat on the internet, congratulations here's a million dollars. Hope you get to sue all of the thousands of spoof videos too. You are so cool.
Reply by weedlord bonerhitler May 05 2013 18:06 GMT
Does anyone else think the Scribblenauts version of Nyancat looks more like a mouse?
Reply by Gold Prognosticus May 05 2013 18:44 GMT
I was thinking that as well
Reply by Super-Claus May 05 2013 23:59 GMT
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