Cathy and Miffy dispute over rabbit characters ends with a donation to Tohoku
According to AFP, in November 2010 a court in Amsterdam ordered Sanrio to stop production and sales of Cathy merchandise after it found that Cathy closely resembled Miffy, a rabbit character created by Dutch children’s author Dick Bruna.
Miffy was created in 1955 when Bruna would tell his son a story about a rabbit they always saw. Miffy’s original Dutch name was Nijntje (which means little rabbit) but was dubbed too difficult for non-Dutch audience to say, so Miffy’s first english translator, Olive Jones, gave the little rabbit the Miffy name. According to The Guardian, today Miffy is worth an estimated $300 million.
Both Miffy and Cathy have similar appearances. They are both female rabbits that are white with simple round bodies, 2 dots for eyes and drawn in a simplistic manner with minimalist features.
Sanrio responded to Miffy’s claims by arguing that no copyright infringement of the character had taken place. This resulted in a long legal battle between the respective companies of the two characters.
However, the companies have reached an agreement resulting in Sanrio’s voluntary decision not to use of their Cathy character.
Instead both companies have decided to donate 150,000 euros to reconstruction efforts of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami victims in the Tohoku area of Japan, money that would have otherwise been used for legal fees.
Sanrio is most famous for the creation of Cathy’s cat friend, Hello Kitty, who is one of Japan’s most recognizable brands.
Cute characters like Miffy, Cathy and Hello Kitty are very popular in Japan and their character licensing is worth an estimated ¥1.58 trillion. Europeon characters resembling animals as opposed to humans, have done well in Japan. The appeal of these Europeon characters besides their kawaii factor, is their uniqueness and foreign novelty. This, however, still requires licensors to be adaptable and tailor merchandise to Japanese taste.
Also as the population grows older, licensors will need to adapt merchandise to suit the growing age. To read more about Hello Kitty, Miffy, and other characters in the billion dollar licensing industry, check out the article Selling Kawaii, in this month’s June edition of EurobiZ.