Elf on the Shelf, the decoration that spies on children to check if they are naughty or nice for you-know-who, has caught much attention this Christmas season, even thousands of miles away in Taiwan where Next Media Animation (NMA) creates those funky cartoon images for news organizations around the world.
But a satirical animation NMA released Dec. 12 drew some unwanted attention from the Georgia publisher of The Elf on the
Shelf and marketer of elf dolls.
]
CCA and B's lawyers sent a letter to NMA threatening
legal action for alleged defamation and trademark infringement, on the grounds that animation was illegally used to depict an animated character.
Hmmm, wonder if South Park's creators faced similar legal heat for their Heavy Metal parody?
Does anyone really believe CCA and B's action is spurred by protecting its trademark versus revenge for the slant of the NMA video, which cast Elf on the Shelf as a creepy
enforcer over misbehaving children and just more holiday crap for their parents to buy?
Judge for yourself. Here's the original NMA story . . .
. . . and NMA's follow-up on the legal threat that proves Elf on the Shelf has legs!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.