The creators of web series from 2009 about a foul-mouthed teddy bear have filed a copyright infringement suit against Seth MacFarlane, Universal Pictures and the producers of Ted.
Bengal Mangle Productions maintain that Ted “is an unlawful copy” of its own animated teddy, who was featured in two different web series, Charlie The Abusive Teddy and Acting School Academy.
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The suit, filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court, states that those web series aired in 2009 and 2010 on Youtube, FunnyOrDie.com and other streaming websites.
“Both Charlie and Ted reside in a substantially similar environment, including that both Charlie and Ted spend a significant amount of time sitting on a living room couch with a beer and/or cigarette in hand,” the suit claims. “Charlie and Ted each have a substantially similar persona, verbal tone, verbal delivery, dialogue, and attitude.”
The suit states that in the Charlie web series, the talking teddy is seen “describing what he wants to do to a prostitute; talking about not wanting to go to rehab; yelling at Amy for making him peas; telling his mother he has spread catnip on his testicles; suggesting he and his father go to the strip club together, and pistol whipping someone to get his point across,” while in Acting School Academy he is seen “telling Amy to get an abortion.” source
The suit claims that these scenes are “substantially similar to ones in Ted in which Ted is seen “showing a woman all the lewd acts he wants to perform with her; using violence to get his point across to John; talking to Nora Jones about their sexual history, and making fat jokes even when his life is in danger.”
