WIPR reports about an interesting lawsuit in the US which concerns the well-known Grumpy Cat which has become an internet sensation in the recent years.
The owners of this cat, trying to use its commercial power, gave in 2013 a license regarding copyrights and trademarks over the cat’s image to the coffee company Grenade Beverage. The license specified that the company has the right to use this intellectual property only for one specific beverage called “Grumppuccino”. However, Grenade Beverage started to use Grumpy Cat for other products too.
As a consequence, the cat’s owners filed a lawsuit for copyright and trademark infringement.
According to the court, there is such intellectual property infringement, because of which a damage in the amount of 710 000 dollars was ordered.
This case is interesting and indicative of the fact that every IP license should be draft very carefully in order to cover all aspects of the IP exploitation and what’s more it has to be executed precisely after that.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 