Posted on 01/28/2018 11:52:03 AM PST by Pelham
On January 23rd, a jury verdict entered in the Central District of California awarded $710,000 in damages for trademark and copyright infringement to Grumpy Cat Limited, the entity holding the rights to the Internet cat celebrity Grumpy Cat. The lawsuit targeted the sale of unlicensed coffee beverages marketed under the Grumpy Cat name by a Los Angeles-area beverage company.
The complaint filed in December 2015 notes, the firm entered into a license agreement with Grenade Beverage in May 2013, which granted Grenade limited rights to the copyrights and trademarks covering the cat’s name and image to develop a line of branded coffee products. The complaint alleges that it was understood between both parties that the agreement was limited to a single line of ice coffee products to be branded as Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino.
Plaintiff learned in late 2015 that Grenade was intending to breach the terms of the license agreement by developing a line of ground coffee products under the Grumpy Cat name. Despite being informed numerous times that they did not have the approval to pursue the additional line of coffee product under the Grumpy Cat brand, Grenade began to market and sell a Roasted Coffee product with packaging that leveraged the Grumpy Cat copyright and trademark IP, which Grenade advertised over social media channels including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as through the website drinkgrumpycat.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at ipwatchdog.com ...
I miss Grumpy Cat. Did he retire?
He’s busy suing infringers.
betcha anything the coffee company was founded and operated by a couple of millennials who believed they could bullshit their way through life and that contracts, rules and laws don’t apply to them ...
Either that or some of our recent legal immigrants who bring those same values with them.
Grumpy cat is female...
Actually I found this rather interesting.
To think that the licensees would only license the trademark for cold coffee products served (I take it) over the counter in a retail store or perhaps in supermarket refrs, yet NOT license it for ground/whole bean coffee products seems kind of...stupid. As if they deliberately lic’ed only for a subset of the products they intended to offer, with the intention of stepping over the line.
Not that there is any shortage of coffee brands.
My new line of coffee products is called “Costly Cat”.
“As if they deliberately lic’ed only for a subset of the products they intended to offer, with the intention of stepping over the line.”
That’s what it looks like to me as well.
Unsurprising.
And he’s STILL grumpy!
There’s just no pleasing some cats.
Is he happy now
I signed into this thread because I knew there would be great pictures. I was not disappointed.
That’s what I was thinking when I posted the article. Figured it would be irresistible.
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