Is A Stickman Protected Under Intellectual Property Laws?

from the in-China? dept

A Chinese internet cartoonist who has created a series of Flash movies using traditional stickmen is suing shoe giant Nike for their commercials using animated stickmen. Not knowing much about intellectual property rules in China, it's tough to tell what this case falls under. I'll leave it to the lawyers to discuss the actual claims (the article doesn't describe specifically what he's suing for), but it is an interesting question. Obviously, the "stick man" has been around for ages. So, it's tough to claim IP control over that. However, is it protected to then take and animate the stick man? I'm not sure. I pretty clearly remember as kid creating flip books of animated stickmen in the margins of random books.