Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald's Corp.
| Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald's Corp. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit |
| Decided | 12 October 1977 |
| Citation(s) | 562 F.2d 1157 |
| Case opinions | |
| Extrinsic and intrinsic tests may be used to determine substantial similarity | |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | CARTER, GOODWIN, and SNEED |
| Keywords | |
| copyright infringement | |
Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald's Corp. (1977) was a case in which puppeteers and television producers Sid and Marty Krofft alleged that the copyright in their H.R. Pufnstuf children's television program had been infringed by a series of McDonald's "McDonaldland" advertisements. The finding introduced the concepts of extrinsic and intrinsic tests to determine substantial similarity.
Sid & Marty Krofft belong to the fifth generation of a family of puppeteers who had been successfully putting on puppet shows around the country, including Le Puppet de Paris, an adult puppet show. They had created the puppets for Hanna-Barbera's children's TV show The Banana Splits. In 1968 the NBC TV network asked them to create a Saturday morning TV show, and after a year of development the H.R. Pufnstuf program was launched in September 1969. The program includes various puppet characters and a boy named Jimmy who live in fantasy land called "Living Island". The island has walking trees and books that talk. The show was very successful and generated various spin-off products such as toys, games, comic books, lunch boxes and Kellogg's cereal commercials.
Early in 1970, the advertising agency Needham, Harper and Steers contacted Marty Krofft asking if the Kroffts would be willing to work with Needham on an advertising campaign for the McDonald's hamburger chain based on the H.R. Pufnstuf characters. Various telephone conversations followed to discuss the concept, and on 31 August 1970 Needham sent a letter saying it was going ahead, but soon after Needham telephoned to say the campaign had been cancelled. Needham had in fact won the contract for the campaign, hired former employees of the Kroffts to work on the sets and costumes, and hired the person who supplied the H.R. Pufnstuf voices to make the voices for several of the McDonaldland commercials, the first of which was broadcast in January 1971.
Following launch of the McDonaldland campaign, the Kroffts were unable to license or renew H.R. Pufnstuf spin-off products. The Ice Capades, which had used their characters, even began to use the McDonaldland characters. The Kroffts filed a suit for copyright infringement in September 1971.
...
Wikipedia