Harris Faulkner Suit Against Hasbro Over A Toy Hamster Ends In Settlement, Hasbro To Discontinue The Toy
from the sigh dept
While we cover a lot of silly intellectual property disputes here, none has the potential to upend our society into a circus of hilarious litigious stupidity as much as publicity rights do. This barely-arrived form of intellectual property has been the star of all kinds of legal insanity, with one needing only to note its use by such upstanding denizens of our reality as Lindsay Lohan and the brother of Pablo Escobar. But I have to admit I had reserved a special place in my humor-heart for Harris Faulkner, the Fox News anchor that sued toy-maker Hasbro for making a a hamster figurine that shared her name. Because the sharing of a name isn't sufficient to arise to a publicity rights violation, the IRL-non-hamster-Faulkner had to claim that the ficticious-hamster-Faulkner also borrowed from her physical likeness, an argument which her legal team actually made. As a reminder, here are images of both.
Just to be clear, one of the depicted is an African-American female news anchor, while the other one is a pale-furred hamster with what appears to be a melted turd on its head. Hasbro pointed this out in its response to Faulkner's suit. I just want to hammer this point home: Hasbro had to point to the differences between a human female news anchor and a cartoon hamster in a legal filing before a very real court of these here United States. Because of publicity rights. If your head hasn't hit the desk in frustration yet, don't worry, because the two sides of this lawsuit have settled and Hasbro has agreed to stop producing the toy hamster.
The judge set up future fact-finding about children's opinions about the toy hamster and whether there was real confusion in the marketplace, but that won't happen due to the settlement.
No terms have been released by the parties, but in a joint statement, they say, "The ‘Harris Faulkner’ toy is no longer manufactured or sold by Hasbro. However, since there still may be ‘Harris Faulkner’ toys or packaging with the ‘Harris Faulkner’ name in the stream of commerce, Ms. Faulkner reiterates that she has not endorsed or approved this product."
Now, it certainly sounds like Hasbro decided that the legal action brought against it by IRL-Faulkner was entirely too much of a pain in its corporate ass compared with whatever revenue was being generated by hamster-Faulkner. But just the fact that this wasn't laughed immediately out of court is a canary in the mine of our sanity when it comes to publicity rights. This will only get worse, I fear, particularly in a country where the cult of celebrity grows at a pace that should terrify us all.
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Filed Under: dolls, harris faulkner, trademark
Companies: hasbro
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"Yes your honor, that hamster looks exactly like my client."
I think the funniest part of the case is that she deliberately had her lawyers go into an actual court and argue that yes, that hamster toy looks enough like her that there would be confusion.
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Re: "Yes your honor, that hamster looks exactly like my client."
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Re: "Yes your honor, that hamster looks exactly like my client."
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Re: "Yes your honor, that hamster looks exactly like my client."
Yes & Faulkner ‘won’ bacon 🥓 breath 🙃🤔👍
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Perhaps the young lass was just a wee bit concerned...
Now here at Candieland I got no problem owning Harris Fulkner, she fits right in with the rest 'o my big ole happy family, no don't she Stephen....
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slow, sad shaking of head...
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And this is probably why Hasbro decided to settle. It wasn't worth their time to go through that kind of meaningless bullshit when anyone halfway sane should know the answers would be:
1) Children have no idea who this woman named Harris Faulkner is, what she does, or what she looks like.
2) No there is no confusion in the 'marketplace' because one is a human news anchor, and one is a toy hamster. There is no overlapping marketplace.
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When does James Woods get to be a special correspondent?
He's got the right mindset.
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Ye & Faulkner ‘won’ bacon 🥓 breath 🙃👍🤔
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Felt intimidated
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Re: Felt intimidated
Yes Faulkner was quite stupid & I’ll informed so much so that she made Hasbro open their check 💰 book; now that’s what you call stupid. 😂😜😂😜😂😂
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That's not clear enough. Which is on the left, which is on the right? I'm so confused. /s
Joke aside, how was this not laughed out of court the second it hit the judge's desk? This kind of case is why the US justice system is the subject of so many jokes.
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M-O-N-E-Y
The most important factor in the American legal system.
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Well...
That is because the hamster is wearing the news anchor like a hat.
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Justice!
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I get that naming toys/cartoon characters real sounding names can always bring the possibility of it matching with a real person, even if its a slimmer chance that person is "famous". But Harris Faulkner is such a unique sounding name that it does come across odd. I've never met a female named Harris before, or male for that matter, as a first name.
Not saying I think it would be wrong to use a name of a real person for a toy, just found it interesting with her name.
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Or give you a bit of a giggle.
Or both. Enjoy.
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An arguable case for marketplace confusion
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the women who stopped disaabled kids getting toys
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with what appears to be a melted turd on its head
At least the hamster has the turd ON it's head, contrary to some celebs that have it IN their heads.
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obvious caricature
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