‘Peppa Pig’ Owner’s Lawsuit Over Wolf Cartoon Dismissed By Russian Court
A pack of anthropomorphic wolves has devoured a complaint involving the intellectual property of Peppa Pig in Russia.
The Moscow City Court court has overturned a lawsuit by Entertainment One (eOne), the owner of the Peppa Pig franchise, which sued Sconnect, the Vietnamese producer of children’s online animated show Wolfoo, in Russia.
Peppa Pig’s owner claimed that Sconnect had infringed on its intellectual property rights by portraying a family of anthropomorphic wolves in a “reworked” style reminiscent of characters in Svinka Peppa (the Russian name for the Peppa Pig series).
Wolfoo follows a wolf cub and his shenanigans with his family in a small American village. The series is aired on Sconnect’s YouTube channels, which have amassed over 130 million followers.
Here’s an episode of Wolfoo:
And here’s a clip from Peppa Pig for context:
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Wolfoo does feature anthropomorphic pigs now and then, though instead of depicting their side profiles—as is typical of the character design in Peppa Pig—the hogs’ faces are front-facing.
eOne has also filed a lawsuit against Sconnect in the UK, where a verdict is pending.
In a news release, the Vietnamese defendant shrugs off alleged “false accusations” by the Peppa Pig owner that Wolfoo has based “Miss Wolfoo (Wolfoo’s mother); Mister Wolfoo (Wolfoo’s father); and Lucy (Wolfoo’s sister)” on “Mummy Pig (Mother [of] Peppa Pig); Daddy Pig (Father [of] Peppa Pig); and George Pig.”
“It can be concluded no breach of intellectual property rights has been linked to Sconnect’s Wolfoo set of characters against [eOne]’s Peppa Pig set of characters; while affirming that under the Russian law, [eOne] is unable to file a claim with the same demand against Sconnect in the
Sconnect says it plans to countersue eOne in Moscow for “causing serious damage [to] the reputation, honor, property, and business activities of Sconnect in the content creation industry,” and is seeking compensation for “all losses and expenses Sconnect paid during the civil litigation case” in Russia.
The producers of Peppa Pig may have lost the case in Russia, but they may have a better chance of standing in the London High Court, which is still making its decision.
Peppa Pig was created by English animators, though the franchise has since changed hands to the Canadian-owned eOne.
In the wake of the war with Ukraine, the Russian government has also legalized piracy of all content from nations that have boycotted Russia.
[via Variety and Media OutReach, cover image via Wolfoo Family]
