Doll maker sues popular TikTok account for ‘injury' to reputation
Irish content creator Thea Von Engelbrechten is the brain behind Sylvanian Drama, a TikTok account with more than 2.5 million followers.
The account is known for using dolls from Sylvanian Families — also known as Calico Critters in the US — to create soap opera-like storylines, the US Sun reported.
Some videos feature the dolls, which are anthropomorphised woodland creatures, passed out drunk, holding weapons, and running over other dolls in cars, among other activities.
But von Engelbrechten suddenly stopped posting videos earlier this year, with the last clip being an ad for the Netflix series Squid Game.
According to court documents obtained by Vulture, the creator has been dealing with a legal battle for several months after the Epoch Company, a Japanese toy giant that created Sylvanian Families, filed a lawsuit against von Engelbrechten on April 7.
The lawsuit accuses von Engelbrechten of copyright infringement and 'creating, publishing, and disseminating online advertising videos' using the dolls without Epoch's permission.
Von Engelbrechten has also used the dolls in advertisements with major brands such as Marc Jacobs, Burberry, and Hilton Hotels, according to the lawsuit.
Epoch claims von Engelbrechten's videos have caused 'irreparable injury' to its reputation and squandered potential licensing opportunities.
'Defendant is 'working to build Sylvanian Drama's own brand image' as an advertising and content creation service provider at the expense of Epoch's goodwill it has built over decades,' the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit is calling for a formal declaration that von Engelbrechten infringed on its copyright and committed acts of false endorsement.
The company is also asking the court to issue an order preventing von Engelbrechten from any further alleged copyright infringement.
Statutory damages of up to $150,000 (AU $229,000) per infringed work are being sought along with any profits the creator made from the account.
It seems that Epoch has been upset with von Engelbrechten's work for years, with the company sending TikTok a Digital Millennium Copyright Act take-down notice over the account in October 2023, according to the lawsuit.
Epoch argued that von Engelbrechten's didn't count as fair use, which resulted in TikTok disabling her account in April 2024.
However, von Engelbrechten got her account back after filing a counter-notice because her content counted as parody.
Epoch disagreed with this, arguing that the videos didn't carry a message about the dolls nor offer any commentary or criticism about them, according to the lawsuit.
After von Engelbrechten's account was brought back, Epoch claims that it tried to reach an amicable resolution for nearly a year.
However, von Engelbrechten allegedly doubled 'her efforts to exploit Epoch's copyrights and trademarks for her own commercial gain,' the lawsuit claims.
Last year, von Engelbrechten told Marketing Brew that Epoch never reached out requesting a collaboration.
'I'd definitely be interested if they ever wanted to. But it's not something that has happened,' she told the outlet at the time.
At the time of writing, von Engelbrechten has yet to formally respond to the lawsuit.
After news of the lawsuit came to light, many of von Engelbrechten's followers have come to her defence.
'She's just a girl, don't sue her!' wrote one person on von Engelbrechten's latest TikTok.
'Sylvanian Drama dropping banger after banger only to get sued years later … true genius is never recognised,' wrote another person on X.
'Nooo Sylvanian Drama literally made me want to buy Sylvanian Families at my grown age and now they're getting sued???' tweeted another person.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the Epoch Company and von Engelbrechten for comment.
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