Remember when things on the internet were cute and fun for the sake of being cute and fun and not for monetary gain? Me neither. According to an article in the Telegraph, Grumpy Cat has successfully sued a coffee company for £500,000 (over $700,000 USD).
The suit alleges that Grenade Beverage—the makers of the Grumppuccino, a bottled ready-to-drink coffee beverage featuring a photo of the nonplussed feline—“blatantly infringed” on the copyrighted image of Grumpy Cat Limited, the corporate overlords involved in all Grumpy Cat-related marketing. Grenade wasn’t sued for the Grumppuccino, though; they paid a whopping $150,000 in order to use the image of Grumpy Cat. They were taken to court because they “had exceeded the deal by selling roasted coffee and ‘Grumppuccino’ T-shirts.”
Not to be outdone, Grenade counter-sued Grumpy Cat Limited, for equally uncool reasons:
So now Grumpy Cat Limited is $700,000 richer, which is a drop in the bucket compared the $100 million the Washington Post states the company may have already made on selling the cat’s image.
If there’s any silver lining to this whole stupid story, it’s that those selected for jury duty—one of the worst forms of civic duty—were treated to a surprise appearance by Grumpy Cat, who did show up to the trial but not the verdict. So that’s fun I guess. The rest of the story, well…
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
*top image from We Went There: Grumpy Cat At Caffé Medici For SXSW
