Katy Perry's Biglaw Firm Sends Out 'Left Shark' Cease & Desist Letter
You don't want to make Katy Perry your enemy, because her lawyers will come at you like a dark horse. Check out the UPDATE: we've got the response to the C&D letter.
If you had the pleasure of watching Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show this past weekend, then you know who Left Shark is. He’s the backup dancer who was dressed in a shark costume who forgot his moves and awkwardly flailed about on the stage like a fish out of water. Because of the grand stage upon which he screwed up, he very quickly rose to internet stardom. Like many infamous online celebrities, people started trying to make a quick buck off Left Shark.
Enter Shapeways, an online store that sells on-demand 3D printed items, like this adorable twerking Einstein. Fernando Sosa, a designer who produces 3D printed figurines of politicians and world leaders, quickly jumped on the Left Shark bandwagon, and began selling his models for $24.99 on Shapeways.
Katy Perry, who as we know is “capable of anything and everything,” sicced her legal team upon the 3D printing site. You don’t want to make her your enemy, because her lawyers will come at you like a dark horse. Which law firm is representing KP in her quest to claim blue shark figurines as her intellectual property?
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The law firm in question is none other than Greenberg Traurig, and Steve Plinio, a partner at the firm, sent Shapeways a cease and desist letter earlier this week requesting — nay, demanding — that the site immediately remove all of Sosa’s “infringing” products. From Plinio’s C&D letter sent on Katy Perry’s behalf:
As you are undoubtedly aware, our client never consented to your use of its copyrighted work and IP, nor did our client consent to the sale of the infringed product. Your unauthorized display and sale of this product infringes our client’s exclusive rights in numerous ways….
Your infringing conduct entitles our client to significant legal relief against you, which may include actual damages, statutory damages, and punitive damages, as well as immediate and permanent injunctive relief.
Shapeways immediately complied, but there’s just one problem with Greenberg Traurig’s claims that Left Shark is one of Katy Perry’s copyrighted works: this may not be how copyright works. It seems a law professor who teaches a variety of IP classes stepped into the Left Shark tank earlier this week. Gigaom has the details:
NYU law professor Christopher Sprigman tweeted that he believes Left Shark is not copyrightable because it qualifies as a “useful article,” which would mean it is not protected the same way as an artistic work.
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Oopsie! Is this just another instance of a celebrity’s legal team trying to bully an unrepresented individual into submission, or would Katy Perry, contra Professor Sprigman’s advice, actually have a claim for Left Shark under 17 U.S.C. § 106?
Fernando Sosa, who has since posted his Left Shark figurine on Thingverse, a site where people can 3D print things for free, had this to say about the legal debacle:
“Well, it looks like dictators and world leaders like Putin and Kim Jong Un or Chris Christie are much easier to deal with,” said Sosa.
“So I probably will go back to doing pieces about them and other world leaders. All this lawyer crap is very stressful.”
Lawyer crap is very stressful — especially when the lawyer crap may actually be crap.
In the end, since the star has yet to comment on her IP problem, all we can assume is that Katy Perry — who more or less flew across a football field on NBC’s protected “The More You Know” logo — is upset she was upstaged by a man in a shark costume whose unchoreographed dance moves were only slightly worse than her own.
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UPDATE (2/9/15): Professor Chris Sprigman is now representing Fernando Sosa in his copyright battle against Katy Perry. Here’s just a taste of Sprigman’s response to Greenberg Traurig’s cease and desist letter (available on the third page):
I’ll end my letter with a very simple request: Just drop this thing. My client wants to get back to his business and he (and I’d wager pretty much everyone else) would be grateful if you’d just back off. Going ahead with these very dubious copyright claims will not benefit Katy Perry.
(Flip to the next page to see Greenberg Traurig’s cease and desist letter, and flip to the third page to see Professor Christopher Sprigman’s response to Katy Perry’s C&D letter.)
