"Baby Shark" Bites Turkish Firm in Court

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 11 May 2020)


                                        Lawsuit bait

The Turkish firm Siyah Kedi Tiyatro Film (SKTF/Black Cat Theater
Film) is the target of a lawsuit filed by the South Korean media firm
Smart Study C.O. LTD because SKTF allegedly copied and used the
musical "Baby Shark Live" produced by Smart Study for children.

Smart Study, which is a subsidiary of Samsung, filed the suit in
Istanbul Intellectual Property and Patent Rights Court in regard to
the Baby Shark video that has been viewed 4.4 billion times (!) in
5 years.

In court, Smart Study asserted that "Smart Study first staged the
musical named 'Baby Shark Live' in South Carolina seven months ago
and has all rights to the format and characters.  SKTF and its partner
Nisa İnci have made an application for the 'Baby Shark' brand.  We
request that an expert witness ensure that SKTF does not destroy the
evidence related to its use of the Baby Shark musical."

Based on Smart Study's request, on 8 February the court-appointed
expert witness went to see SKTF's production of the Baby Shark
musical at Trump Towers (!) in Istanbul and determined that both
Smart Study's and SKTF's productions of the musical were
exactly the same.


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