PHIGHTING WORDS
Creator of Phillie Phanatic in dispute to make famous mascot a free agent
The Phillie Phanatic has bounced his massive green hindparts into court at least five times, leading the Philadelphia Daily News to call him the “Big Green Litigation Machine” in 2010. And that was before he was sued in 2012 for grabbing a lounge chair with a woman on it and throwing them both in a pool.
Friday afternoon, the Hollywood Reporter reported that there’s a new suit involving the mascot: This time, the Phillies are suing his alleged creator over the trademark. Harrison/Erickson — a design firm that was involved with the creation of the Phanatic, Expos mascot Youppi!, and several Muppets — sent the Phillies a notice of termination copyright provision, according to the complaint filed by the Phillies. H/E claims that they have the right to terminate the copyright after 35 years, and the Phanatic debuted in 1978. The Phillies’ complaint says that “It would be unjust for H/E to keep the fully amount that The Phillies paid for a permanent assignment if the Phillies will have received the benefit of only a 35-year term.”
The root of the dispute, according to the Phillies, is that H/E terminated the 1979 rights deal and sold permanent rights in 1984 for $215,000 for what the
Phillies claim is “forever.”
The complaint says that
H/E is seeking an injunction against the
Phillies that would
“make the Phanatic a free agent.”
(If the Phanatic is available, would teams be dedicated enough to winning to pay top dollar or even compensatory draft picks for him? Would he take less money to come north and bunk with Mr. and Mrs. Met?)
The root of H/E’s copyright claim is that the Phanatic is “an artistic sculpture,” and the complaint only gets better from there. The Phillies claim that they deserve credit for its “green color, large waistline, and big nose,” meaning that they cede credit for its googly eyes, long tongue, and huge butt.
The Phillies are ready to play hardball, writing in the complaint that “even if H/E were able to terminate… at great expense, the Club has prepared scores of derivative works of the Phanatic costume, and it has the absolute right to continue using them.” The complaint does not include designs for purple or skinny alternate scab Phanatics; at that point, why not use Gritty?
The complaint does contain an illustration of the dispute of the nature of the Phanatic. According to the Phillies, H/E says the Phanatic is a fully realized sculpture (top photo below), but it’s really just a pile of shoes and wigs:
The free agent thing is real. The Phillies claim that if H/E is successful, the firm has threatened the team that the Phanatic “will be sold to another sports team.” It probably won’t happen, but the thought of Gritty taking over Philadelphia is too much to bear. The Phillies and Harrison/ Erickson have yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit.