Yes Yes Copyright Infringement: Jury Returns $23.5 Million Verdict in Favor of Firm Clients Moonbug Entertainment and Treasure Studio, Owners of the Hit Franchise CoComelon

On July 27, 2023, the jury in Moonbug and Treasure Studio’s ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit against competitor BabyBus Co., Ltd., returned its verdict finding BabyBus liable for willfully infringing dozens of Moonbug’s registered copyrights and awarding Moonbug nearly $23.5 million in damages ($17.6 million in actual damages and disgorged profits, as well as $5.8 million in statutory damages electable in the alternative). This represents the culmination of over two years of legal disputes over BabyBus’ knockoff video series “Super JoJo,” which Moonbug successfully proved willfully infringed copyrights in their own original hit children’s series “CoComelon.”

“We are incredibly pleased with this outcome.  It has been fabulous working with such a great client that fully trusted our small and mighty team going up against Quinn Emanuel,” said Ryan Tyz.  “I am so proud of the entire Tyz Law Group team, especially Ciara McHale and Deborah Hedley, along with Moonbug’s Victoria Baxter, who led the trial with me with and helped tell the CoComelon story, which is as inspiring as the shows they create.” 

On July 5, a jury was empaneled in federal court in San Francisco and a 3.5-week trial began. Moonbug’s attorneys—including lead counsel Ryan Tyz and co-counsel Ciara McHale and Deborah Hedley—deftly explained how BabyBus saw CoComelon as an obvious success story in young children’s programming, and rather than attempt to create something original instead sought to shortcut production of their own competitor program by directly copying CoComelon. Through witness testimony, including industry experts and multiple veteran content creators at Moonbug, as well as the presentation of a treasure trove of damning documents uncovered during discovery, the Tyz Law team successfully explained how and why BabyBus copied CoComelon. BabyBus copied nearly all aspects of the hit series to build Super JoJo, from the near-carbon copy of the beloved CoComelon protagonist JJ with their knockoff character JoJo, to the wholesale appropriation of the framing, cinematography, structure, and overall look and feel of entire episodes. BabyBus’ disjointed and confusing defenses, lacking any factual foundation, quickly fell apart, and led to BabyBus’ CEO admitting on the witness stand to even more plagiarism than what had previously been conceded.

On July 24, both parties presented their closing arguments, and the case was handed to the jury. After two and a half days of deliberations, the jury returned their findings of BabyBus’ willful copyright infringement of Moonbug’s registrations across the board, including of the protected characters JJ and his family. The jury also found that BabyBus had in fact violated 17 U.S.C. 512(f) by submitting knowingly fraudulent counter notifications, the first time a jury has ever reached such a conclusion in the history of the DMCA. In total, the jury awarded Moonbug nearly $23.5 million in actual damages, disgorged profits, and statutory damages electible in the alternative.

This outcome finally vindicates in court the simple truth that Moonbug and Tyz Law Group have known the whole time: artistic expression and content creators are always worth protecting, and the owners and creators of valuable intellectual property must stand firm against flagrant plagiarists.

The jury’s decision follows other major victories by Moonbug, represented by boutique firm Tyz Law Group, PC, against BabyBus, represented by business litigation titan Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. First, in May 2022, Moonbug defeated BabyBus’ affirmative defenses and counterclaims, which the court held ran afoul of California’s anti-SLAPP statute and resulted in Quinn Emanuel being slapped with $160,000 in legal fees. Then in March 2023, Moonbug was granted partial summary judgment in this case, with the court acknowledging not only the validity of dozens of the studio’s registered copyrights—including in the protectable character JJ—but also BabyBus’ admission of willful infringement of seven of these registrations.

The case is Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. v. BabyBus Co., Ltd., Case No. 3:21-cv-06536-EMC (N.D. Cal. 2023). Moonbug is represented by Tyz Law Group, PC. BabyBus is represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

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Tyz Law Group is a boutique litigation and IP counseling firm comprised of former big law and in-house attorneys with highly specialized expertise in the technology sector.  If you have any questions about the issues discussed in this article, please do not hesitate to contact us at (415) 868-6900 or contact@tyzlaw.com.

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