Lawsuit targets Ted creator Seth MacFarlane
A US production company is taking aim at director and actor Seth MacFarlane, accusing his feature length film Ted of copyright infringement.
Bengal Mangle Productions (BMP) claimed the film, which centres on a beer-drinking and foul-mouthed teddy bear (Ted) and his owner, was ripped off from a series of short films it produced called Acting School Academy (ASA).
In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California, BMP said the Ted character was strikingly similar to the ASA character Charlie.
The lawsuit, filed on July 15, said Charlie, like Ted, lives in a “human, adult world with all human friends”.
“Charlie has a penchant for drinking, smoking, prostitutes, and is a generally vulgar yet humorous character,” it added.
BMP is also targeting movie studio Universal, as well as MacFarlane’s company Fuzzy Door Productions and Ted producer Media Rights Capital, and is seeking unspecified damages.
ASA was shown on websites including YouTube and Facebook and got at least 1.2 million views between July 2009 and June 2012, according to the complaint.
Due to success of the Charlie character a spin-off called Charlie the Abusive Teddy Bear, was created.
Seth MacFarlane, most famous as the creator of US cartoon Family Guy, directed co-wrote and starred in Ted, which was released in the summer of 2012.
A sequel is due to be released in 2015.
The complaint added: “Defendants have earned, and will continue to earn, substantial sums through their exploitation of Ted and the Ted character. They continue to actively exploit Ted and the Ted character.
“Defendants never sought nor obtained plaintiff’s permission to use the Charlie character and continue to infringe the Charlie character in various ways.”
