After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a different copyright infringement case, The Walt Disney Company must now revisit a case that was thrown out in 2021, claiming that Lotso from Toy Story 3 is also in violation of copyright law, according to Yahoo News.
What’s Happening:
- The U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling earlier this month when a “Bad Spaniels” dog chew toy parodied Jack Daniels branding that the the first amendment (free speech) did not protect the product, and was subject to copyright law.
- Now, with the ruling, The Supreme Court has ruled that The Walt Disney Company must revisit a case that was thrown out by a lower court claiming the company violated a New Jersey toymaker’s trademark rights with the character of Lotso AKA Lots-O’-Huggin Bear from the hit Pixar Animation Studios film, Toy Story 3.
- Back in 1994, Randice-Lisa Altschul's Diece-Lisa Industries invented a stuffed animal with sleeves that could simulate an animal's hug, and the company owns intellectual property rights for the wearable “Lots of Hugs bear.”
- In 2012, Diece-Lisa sued The Walt Disney Company, claiming that Toy Story 3’s Lots-O’-Huggin Bear infringed on the trademark in the “Lots of Hugs” Name.
- Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter ruled for Disney in 2021, citing First Amendment protections. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 affirmed Hatter's decision.
- Altschul's company told the Supreme Court in October that Disney should not have been protected under a legal construct called the Rogers test that has allowed artists to lawfully use trademarks without permission when the use has artistic relevance to their work and would not explicitly mislead consumers.
- Diece-Lisa said the 9th Circuit's ruling "radically expanded" the test beyond its original intent to protect "culturally significant" marks and titles of artistic works.
- In Pixar Animation Studios’ Toy Story 3, Lotso serves as the primary villain, running the daycare center and the toys with an authoritarian hand–or paw. Though he is designed as a jumbo, extra-soft teddy bear with a pink and white plush body and a velvety purple nose (and smells like strawberries!), He is one of the most sinister villains in the Pixar universe, sending Woody, Buzz, and the others to an almost certain doom in a landfill incinerator.