ELMO puppet on EBAY?

[PaulyPuppets]

As someone who tries to protect the copyrights of my own puppet designs, I found this interesting....Found this on EBAY. Could this be defined as copyright infringement? Doesn't say it's actually Elmo, but it sure looks as though it is. Says it's wearing ELMO clothes, and that it's a red furry monster. Your thoughts? Check it out> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11741&item=5939980269&rd=1​

 

[Infinity Sirius]

That's infringement and obviously a knockoff.

 

[ravagefrackle]

As someone who tries to protect the copyrights of my own puppet designs, I found this interesting....Found this on EBAY. Could this be defined as copyright infringement? Doesn't say it's actually Elmo, but it sure looks as though it is. Says it's wearing ELMO clothes, and that it's a red furry monster. Your thoughts? Check it out> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11741&item=5939980269&rd=1​

considering th epoor quality, i dont think its really a concern, but yes when you do evrything in your power(regardless of talent) to create a duplicate (excempt in cases of parody) then yes it is infringement

 

[timrikthegorf]

I dunno. There are enough differences Elmo and this thing. The shape of the head and body, the fury eyes, the tongue. If it went to court I don't think Sesame Workshop would win.

 

[FISH'N'WOLFE]

There is also this http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=18839&item=4056042926&rd=1 on there right now as well.

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

I dunno. There are enough differences Elmo and this thing. The shape of the head and body, the fury eyes, the tongue. If it went to court I don't think Sesame Workshop would win.

The hold the legal rights to any Marketing and/or Manufacturing/Distubution of the Name and/or Likeness of their Characters

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

heres a thread about the same thing http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=17430

 

[FISH'N'WOLFE]

That is not the same auction that PaulyPuppets has posted. They are two separate auctions. I posted that link from the other thread since people from the puppetry section don't always browse the rest of the forum and might have missed it..

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I dunno. There are enough differences Elmo and this thing. The shape of the head and body, the fury eyes, the tongue. If it went to court I don't think Sesame Workshop would win.

Cases of copyright infringement (how do we always end up on this subject?) are usually judged on whether or not the (alleged) infringing work is "derivative" of the original and likely to cause confusion in the market place. I think there's little doubt that this is case of someone riffing on Elmo's likeness.

 

[psiomicron]

If you look next to the Elmo replica the counts head is there!