Teletubbies take on Wal-Mart's Bubbly Chubbies

IT'S OVER!

Wal-Mart Settles Court Case!

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Youngsters or their parents looking for Teletubbies dolls won't find lookalike Bubbly Chubbies on the shelves of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. anymore.

Wal-Mart has settled a lawsuit brought by the creators and marketers of Teletubbies, who accused the giant retailer of copyright infringement by selling the Bubbly Chubbies.

The lawsuit called the Bubbly Chubbies ``obvious, studied knockoffs of the famous Teletubbies characters.''

England-based Ragdoll Productions Ltd. and its North American licensing agent itsy bitsy Entertainment Co. filed the suit in March in U.S. District Court in New York.

Wal-Mart agreed in the settlement to pull all Bubbly Chubbies items off shelves, destroy its remaining inventory and provide itsy bitsy Entertainment and Ragdoll Productions with information on the manufacturing and distribution of such items.

The discount-store giant said Wednesday that it paid no monetary damages in the settlement. The lawsuit continues against the alleged manufacturer of the Bubbly Chubbies and another distributor.

``Our concern in filing this suit was not about money, but in protecting the integrity of the Teletubbies trademarks which we have associated with products that insure the highest of safety and creative play standards possible,'' said Kenn Viselman, president of itsy bitsy Entertainment.

Wal-Mart said in a brief statement that it will ``remove the limited quantity of Bubbly Chubbies from our stores that remained from a one-time purchase.''

The Teletubbies characters, Tinky Winky, Laa-Laa, Po, and Dipsy have been featured on BBC since 1997, the lawsuit said.

The series now airs or will soon air in about 120 countries and in 21 languages and dialects. Since last April, it has been broadcast on 323 Public Broadcasting System stations, reaching 97 percent of U.S. households.

Ragdoll Productions was founded in 1984 by children's television program producer Anne Wood. The New York-based itsy bitsy Entertainment Co. was founded in 1995 by Viselman.

A funny take on this...

Retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Tuesday its Bubbly Chubbies toys are similar to Teletubbies, but that it had received a legal opinion that its toys did not infringe any copyrights.

Wal-Mart lawyers stressed the differences noting its version of Tinky Winky was so manly it nailed several of the Barbie dolls after store hours and never even bothered to call them back.

• Yahoo News Briefs: Teletubbies take on Wal-Mart's Bubbly Chubbies
  This article had expired by 4/19/99. I've recreated the contents on the linked page.

• New York Times: The Teletubbies Take On the Bubbly Chubbies as Cute Goes to Court
  This article was no longer available as of 4/19. I've typed it in as a web page.

• The Wednesday, March 24th Wall Street Journal had a small article burried towards the back. No new information. (I'd post a link to the article, but you gotta buy an on-line subscription to get to it. If you've got a sub, just search for "Teletubbies")
• I was told by all around cool person Stacey Johnson that Comedy Centeral has a Real Video scene from The Daily Show featuring a story about the Bubbly Chubbies/Wal-Mart issue. In fact, it's featured on their front page! This story is gone now, but visit Comedy Central anyway...they're pretty cool.