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Fox News Anchor Sues Hasbro over Hamster Toy

posted by martyb on Thursday September 03 2015, @08:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-is-her-dress-yellow-or-black? dept.

A Fox News anchor is suing a US toy company, Hasbro, for more than $5m (£3.3m) over a toy hamster that she says resembles her and shares her name. Harris Faulkner said the company's portrayal of her as a plastic hamster "was demeaning and insulting". She filed a legal case saying the toy resembled her traditional professional appearance, including complexion, eye shape and eye make-up design. The toy is part of the company's popular Littlest Pet Shop collection. It was first introduced in 2014, according to legal documents (pdf) obtained by entertainment news website Deadline. The legal case, which was filed at a district court in New Jersey on Monday, said Hasbro had "wilfully and wrongfully appropriated Faulkner's unique and valuable name and distinctive persona for its own financial gain". It said Mrs Faulkner, who has been a Fox News anchor for 10 years, had never given the toy manufacturer permission to use her name or likeness and in January demanded they stop using the product. But three weeks later, it said, the doll was still available on the Hasbro website.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34133723

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by massa on Thursday September 03 2015, @10:34AM

    by massa (5547) on Thursday September 03 2015, @10:34AM (#231654)

    http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/2FB5/production/_85331221_harris.jpg [bbci.co.uk]

    IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE HER AT ALL.
    Just madness...

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday September 03 2015, @08:38PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday September 03 2015, @08:38PM (#231954) Journal

    But in all fairness (and balancedness), it does not resemble a hamster to any great degree, either.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday September 04 2015, @06:00PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Friday September 04 2015, @06:00PM (#232358)

      And? Teddy bears don't really resemble bears to any particular degree, but that doesn't give me a right to sure teddy-bear manufacturers for copying my likeness - because they resemble me even less.

      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday September 05 2015, @06:01AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday September 05 2015, @06:01AM (#232529) Journal

        And now, from here to eternity, I shall always have in my mind that immerman is right and sure to be a teddy bear. I am thinking "Teddy Ruskpin" more than the original cub spared by Theodore Roosevelt. (Who lead a secret life and later became Smokey the Bear! On my honor truth!). But immerman, teddy bear, no likeness implied or intended. If this keeps up, I will have to form non-veridical images of The Mighty Buzzard, Ethanol, and Runaway, but the only image that comes to mind for those is Oscar, as in Oscar the Grouch. Or Skescies.