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A judge recently issued a ruling mandating the removal of all videos featuring Wolfoo by 16:00 BST this coming Monday. The case originated when Hasbro and Astley Baker Davies Ltd, the creators of Peppa Pig, initiated legal proceedings in London during 2022. Their argument centered on allegations that SConnect, the company behind Wolfoo, attempted to mislead the young audience—primarily children aged two to five—into believing that Wolfoo was either the same as Peppa Pig or otherwise linked to the popular character.
Initially, the complaint focused on similarities in Wolfoo’s visual style, but the legal battle soon concentrated on the audio components. The companies believed it would be more straightforward to demonstrate that sound clips had been directly copied from Peppa Pig. The judge described the evidence as “compelling,” stating, “That copying was extensive, seemingly endemic at least so far as the English language Wolfoo videos are concerned.” Despite SConnect denying infringement, they admitted that some content produced before mid-2020 contained Peppa Pig audio, which had been included by an independent third-party contractor without their knowledge. SConnect also claimed all infringing videos had since been removed and that later Wolfoo animations used only original, in-house created sounds.
The judge dismissed SConnect’s defense that the use of a third party for sounds was irrelevant, noting some infringing videos had merely been relocated to different channels rather than deleted. Furthermore, the court found the assertion that all post-2020 audio was created internally to be false. Investigations revealed that every one of the 92 English-language Wolfoo videos examined contained Peppa Pig clips, as well as approximately 75% of the foreign-language videos. When asked for comment, SConnect indicated the ruling should only apply to the specific sample of videos in question, arguing the scope was overly broad. However, the judge clarified that the order applies not only in the UK but also across the European Union and all 166 World Trade Organization member countries, including the USA and Vietnam.
Andrew Lee, partner and head of intellectual property at the law firm Brandsmiths who represented Hasbro, described the decision as a “significant judgment.” He highlighted Peppa Pig’s global reach, available “in hundreds of countries around the world,” and emphasized the threat Wolfoo posed to the brand at such scale. Lee explained that by choosing to bring the case to UK courts, Hasbro aimed to safeguard the brand within its home jurisdiction while leveraging the defendants’ activities in the UK, despite their Vietnamese base. He added, “So it was about trying to protect the Peppa Pig brand in one forum, rather than having to bring actions in every single country.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
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