Grumpy Cat makes Court appearance in copyright case

The owners of Tardar Sauce, the name of the internet breaking, meme-generating Grumpy Cat have been awarded £500,000 in damages in a recent copyright case. Grumpy Cat Limited (who own Tardar Sauce's image rights) have sued Grenade Beverage (a US coffee company) for use that extended beyond their 2013 agreement. After the permanently frowny feline broke the internet in 2012, Grenade entered into a $150,000 deal to use the cat's image on a range of drinks, including the "Grumppuccino". The claim by Grumpy Cat Limited was that Grenade had exceeded the bounds of the agreement by also selling Grumppuccino t-shirts and roasted coffee beans, which amounted to both a breach of contract and an infringement of both copyright and trademark. For their part, Grenade counter-sued stating they had relied on a promise that the cat would appear in a blockbuster Hollywood film: which it did not. They also alleged that the cat's owners had failed to mention their coffee products during a TV appearance. Siding with the cat (who did make a brief court appearance), the Judge ordered damages for copyright and trademark infringement in the sum of $710,000.

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