Philadelphia Phillies sue mascot’s creators over ownership
A US baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies, have filed a lawsuit against the creators of their “Phanatic” mascot after the pair allegedly tried to make it a “free agent”.
The complaint, filed Friday, August 2 at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, asked the court for a declaratory judgment that designers Wayde Harrison and Bonnie Erickson cannot sue the team for copyright infringement over the mascot.
In 1978, the Phillies’ executive vice president, Bill Giles, worked with the designers to develop the Phanatic costume.
Erickson went on to create Miss Piggy and other muppets as part of Jim Henson’s puppet workshop, then later mascots for a variety of US sports teams with her business partner, Harrison.
According to the complaint, in 1984 the Phillies entered into an agreement with Harrison and Erickson giving the team a complete buyout of the creators’ rights to the Phanatic.
But, all of this was suddenly threatened when the Phillies received a letter from Harrison and Erickson’s attorneys in June 2018 purporting to give notice of termination of the agreement, despite earlier agreeing that it would be “forever”, the filing said.
In the complaint, the Phillies said the creators’ “threat to make the Phanatic a free agent” should be enjoined because the team owns federal trademarks in the Phanatic that are famous, and any use by another organisation in commerce would confuse consumers as well as dilute the distinctiveness of the marks.
Allegedly, the letter falsely claimed that Harrison and Erickson had “created the copyrighted character” and ignored the Phillies’ role in designing the Phanatic’s costume. The letter also said the creators had the right to terminate the 1984 agreement, added the complaint.
But, the Phillies said the creators cannot terminate an agreement they promised would last forever. The team said even if they did, they cannot enforce their “purported copyright” of the Phanatic costume.
“That is because Harrison and Erickson fraudulently obtained their copyright registration by representing to the US Copyright Office that the Phanatic costume was an ‘artistic sculpture’ rather than a costume,” the complaint said.
Harrison and Erickson made that false statement because they knew that, if they had described the work as a costume, the Copyright Office would not have registered it, the filing alleged.
Additionally, the team said it is the co-author of the Phanatic costume because it contributed “expressive content” to its design.
The Phillies added that the team is also an author of the Phanatic character because it “took a lifeless costume and bright it to life, transforming it into a beloved character”.
“Without the club’s contributions, the Phanatic would not have been a character at all,” the Phillies said.
Bonnie Erickson and Wayde Harrison told WIPR they had been in negotiation with the Phillies for more than a year regarding the licencing of the Phanatic.
In a joint statement, Erickson and Harrison said: “At the Phillies’ request more than 40 years ago, we created the Phanatic, giving him a story and a life. His value has grown with his popularity, and we felt that the Phillies franchise never offered a reasonable payment to extend the Phanatic’s license.
“Instead, we were sued by the franchise, which was incredibly disappointing. While we very much want the Phanatic to remain the Phillies mascot, we will not yield to this lawsuit tactic. We intend to respond to it and win,” they added.
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