Hasta La Ideas

It’s been a long week, so let’s start off light this morning. You know how much we enjoy a strange, semi-designed based legal fight (the last we posted was about disposable cups), and we’ve found maybe the best yet. The site Techdirt discovered a lawsuit filed by Stagecraft Costuming Corporation of Cincinnati against New Jersey’s own HouseHaunters Limited Liability Company (as well as any retailers they’ve sold to) over a particular costume design the former said the latter had blatantly copied. The costume in question? We’ll let the first paragraph from the legal filing do the talking:

This action arises from HouseHaunters’ slavish copying of Stagecraft’s copyrighted costume titled The Man in the Cage. The costume — which is highly original, successful, and well known — creates the illusion that the wearer is trapped inside a cage held by a large gorilla. Recognizing the originality and creativity of the costume, HouseHaunters infringed Stagecraft’s copyright and trade dress by creating and selling a nearly identical version of the costume called “Get Me Out of the Cage Gorilla Costume.”

If you read one legal document today, please make it this one. It’s a little dry after that, but come the “Factual Allegations” section, starting on page 4, you’ll be in bizarre document heaven once more.

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