Dr Seuss secures injunction but no damages over ‘Star Trek’ mash-up
Dr Seuss Enterprises has settled its copyright dispute over a comic mash-up of “Oh the Places you’ll go” and “ Star Trek”, after ComicMix conceded that it had infringed upon the late author’s work and accepted a permanent injunction.
The two companies filed the joint motion at the US District Court for the District Court of California on Tuesday, October 5, which will see ComicMix avoid any liability for damages.
The dispute dates back to 2016 when former “Star Trek” screenwriter and science fiction author Gerrold Templeton and artist Ty Templeton created the comic book, “Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go”, as part of a Kickstarter campaign.
This prompted the estate of Theodor Seuss Geisel to sue ComicMix, its co-founder Glenn Hauman, and the Templetons for copyright and trademark infringement, as well as unfair competition.
Dr Seuss’ estate alleged that the comic “purports to be an amalgamation of the Dr Seuss works and certain characters, imagery, and other elements from Star Trek” and was copied from the Dr Seuss works, primarily “Oh the Places You’ll Go!”
Not ‘fair use’
Dr Seuss’ estate claimed that the makers of the mash-up comic infringed by creating “wholesale slavish copies” of Seuss illustrations and text in its mash-up comic.
The estate also claimed that the comic incorporated protected elements of the books “Horton Hears a Who”, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”, “The Lorax”, and “The Sneetches and Other Stories”.
In August, Dr Seuss was denied a summary judgment in the suit after Judge Janis Sammartino in California ruled that the case should go before a jury trial.
The order also denied ComicMix’s motion for reconsideration of a referral order, holding that a Ninth Circuit’s reversal of a previous summary judgment in ComicMix’s favour left the referral order subject to reconsideration.
The Ninth Circuit found in December 2020 that the mash-up in dispute, “Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!”, could not be protected as “fair use”.
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