Megacorporation Time Warner is threatening to sue a pair of Australian women, claiming that the cartoon logo on their child safety tags looks too much like the image of the Powerpuff Girls.
Time Warner, the corporate owner of the Cartoon Network, is considering legal action against Jo-Anne Turner and Anika Brizuela of Sydney. Turner and Brizuela's company, Sydney-based Walkabouts International, trademarked Charlie and Lucy to appear on ID tags created for children's shoes.
"They want us to give up our logo and destroy our stock -- that alone would cost us $60,000 [about $46,000 U.S.]," Turner, a flight attendant from Cronulla, told the Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Sunday.
"On top of that, we're looking at huge legal bills, estimated at up to $100,000 [$76,000 U.S.], if they take us to court."
The Walkabouts characters are "deceptively similar" to the Powerpuff Girls, Australian patent and trademark lawyers Peter Maxwell and Associates, acting for the Cartoon Network, wrote to the Australian women. "Our client is of the view... you are attempting to trade on the goodwill of the Powerpuff Girls."
Federal Court action could take place if the women don't cancel registration of the Walkabouts characters, the lawyers said in their letter.
Dave Campbell, the small business minister for the Australian state for New South Wales, termed "farcical" Time Warner's claim that the Charlie and Lucy logo might confuse Powerpuff fans. He said Sunday that he had written to Time Warner asking it to "back off" its threatened legal action.
"The characters Charlie and Lulu, used to promote Walkabouts, are generic cartoons which look nothing like these Powerpuff characters. It's appalling that an American company is threatening to take a small, home-based NSW business to court over such a spurious claim," Campbell said.
"I didn't even know who the Powerpuff Girls were," said Turner, adding that creating and marketing the identification tags took three years.
"It's devastating that a company like Time Warner wants to ruin everything we have built up," she said.
"We came up with an original idea and did everything by the book. We followed all the trademarks and patents guidelines. That application takes 12 months, and people have an opportunity to knock back a trademark."
Turner and Brizuela were preparing to sell their product online before taking the logo to retailers and branching into children's wear.
Left to right: The Powerpuff Girls, the Charlie and Lucy logo
Re: Power struggle over Powerpuff Girls logo
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You've got to admit, Lucy looks a lot like Bubbles, except for the presence of a nose, an appendage the Powerpuffs don't possess.
Yes, they do look sort of similar, but once you get a proper look at the characters in question, on the official "Walkabouts" website, (They aren't just disembodied heads!), it becomes fairly clear that that they aren't an attempt to rip off the PPG's at all.
Clear to any reasonable person that is, but not apparently to Time-Warner's legal department...
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" He lied to us through song! I hate when people do that!"
Re: Power struggle over Powerpuff Girls logo
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If I sat on the jury for this case, I would work to make Time/Warner pay "through the nose"! It's corporate stupidity, to think that this case has a toe (let alone, a leg) to stand on. Lawsuits like this, show that big companies must honestly believe they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I have little doubt, should Warner lose this case, and better yet, lose a large amount in a cross-suit, they will appeal it. Claiming that the out come is so unfair. You want to know what unfair is W-B? Unfair is when big business target small business with no consideration to what is right or wrong, only the desire to gain power.
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"A year later, I was beat up at a Neal Diamond concert by a guy named Scrunchie."
