The owners of the Grumpy Cat brand, based around a cat with dwarfism and an underbite who perpetually looks grumpy, have successfully sued a company for £500,000 for unauthorised use of pictures of the animal.
Grumpy Cat Limited struck a deal with US coffee company Grenade, allowing it to sell its "Grumppuccino" iced coffee drink featuring a photograph of the cat.
The $150,000 (£105,171) deal, made in 2013, originally allowed Grenade Beverages to use the image but just on the iced drink range.
However, Grumpy Cat Limited filed court documents in 2015 claiming the company had exceeded the deal by selling roasted coffee and "Grumppuccino" T-shirts.
The company claimed this "blatantly infringed" their copyright.
@RealGrumpyCat Found some #Grumppuccino 😺 pic.twitter.com/AQKJB4wl2e
— Dina L (@DinaJ) November 27, 2014
The coffee company counter-sued, claiming their beverages and company weren’t shared on Grumpy Cat’s social media profiles as much as they were lead to believe, or in a television appearance, and also alleged the owners had told them the cat was set to star in a film alongside Hollywood actors Will Ferrell and Jack Black, which did not happen.
The California jury found in Grumpy Cat Limited’s favour, ordering the coffee company to pay out.
It was reported that the famous cat even made an appearance at the trial, but was not there for the verdict.
Grumpy Cat originally became famous in 2012 when a picture of the animal was widely shared on the website Reddit.
The animal, real name Tardar Sauce, now has hundreds of thousands of fans around the world and has made her owners rich with many lucrative merchandising deals including clothing, calendars and soft toys.
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