Comments on: Comments on 1492

Post number 1492

sugarfish — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 00:08:30 -0800

i think this lawsuit is for me to poop on. pets.com is suing Robert Smigel, saying that he ripped off their sock puppet as inspiration for Triumph the Insult Comic.

By: muta

muta — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 06:13:56 -0800

correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't triumph debut about three years before pets.com was even a gleam in anyone's eye? what's with all the frivolous dot com lawsuits??

By: centrs

centrs — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 06:17:26 -0800

no, pets.com is suing robert smigel because triumph said that their puppet is based on him! they think, given the dirty nature of triumph, that people will associate his vulgarity with their puppet and product...or something like that...

By: corpse

corpse — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 06:35:10 -0800

Oh, so it's a case of puppet slandering. Sigh.

By: chaz

chaz — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 07:23:12 -0800

it's a case of publicity-whoring. pretty good one, too! Pets.com is in all the nation's papers, all over the internet, etc.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 07:40:15 -0800

Gosh, this sure is out of the blue, isn't it? I mean, Triumph's been around forever, the pets.com sock puppet has been around for about a year, and now all of a sudden they decide to sue. Strange .... or maybe NOT so strange: pets.com sock puppet merchandise to be available nationally. It includes contact info for their press office, but I would never, ever suggest using that for malicious purposes. Nor would I suggest calling their 800 number (which may or may not be 1-888-321-PETS) and asking how much a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog sock puppet costs.

By: Jeremy Bowers

Jeremy Bowers — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 08:16:31 -0800

Trademarks aren't affected by "prior art"... under more normal circumstances it wouldn't matter if Pets.com were simply pursuing a trademark infringement suit. However, with both sides accusing the other of ripping them off, things get more interesting :-) Time does become an issue then. One can only guess that nobody at Pets.com has ever heard of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog before they created their sock puppet (I've never heard of it until today, and nobody around me has either, so it's not implausible), otherwise the whole thing just doesn't make sense.

By: CrazyUncleJoe

CrazyUncleJoe — Fri, 28 Apr 2000 14:46:25 -0800

I actually saw the sketch where Triumph was calling the Pets.com sockpuppet a rip off - but ... er.. that's his schtick. One has to wonder there will be a class action suit for all those dogs that Triumph humped while covering the Westminster Dog Show.