WKU’s been in a 15-year legal battle regarding Big Red plagiarism

And the saga continues thanks to a ruling by the Italian supreme court.

I’m not an intellectual property lawyer, but if you’re gonna tell me that these two anthropomorphic blobs don’t resemble each other, then I’m going to tell you that you’re wrong.

The former is Big Red, Western Kentucky’s odd — yet extremely lovable — mascot. The second is an Italian character referred to as “the Barney of Italy,” that Western Kentucky and its international merchandise licenses alleged in a lawsuit is a blatant rip off of their large red sideline superstar.

This case has wound its way through Italian courts for 15 years and looked like it was at its end back in February.

With decision (no. 503) published on 11 January 2017 the Italian Supreme Court confirmed the earlier decision issued by the Court of Appeal of Bologna (decision no. 609/2011) confirming that the American puppet did not have a sufficient degree of creativity to be protected under Italian copyright law. The Court reasoned as follows:

firstly, Big Red was not deemed original on the grounds that it was considered “a clumsy humanoid having a shapeless red mass and big head and mouth” like many other well-known puppets, including “Barbapapà”, “Elmo Muppet” and “Grossamer”. The American puppet seemed “trivial and obvious” due to the simplicity of its shape, and its features were not considered sufficiently unique to grant it copyright protection. Finally, the Court also pointed out that even if Big Red had deserved copyright protection for its facial features, Gabibbo would not have constituted an infringement due to the differences between the two puppets.

But a subsequent refiling has a potential smoking gun in it where the Italian creator of Gabibbo admitted that the bow-tied blob was previously a mascot for a basketball team in Kentucky. The highest court in Italy ruled that the re-file had merit, and it will head back to a Milan Court of Appeals.

Big Red’s creator was pleased with the decision.