Latest news with #GrumpyCat
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How AI-Generated, Vaguely Italian Memes Are Taking Over Your Teen's Social Media Feed
If you're the parent of a t(w)een, the memes that fill your social media feeds are probably a whole lot different than your teenager's. You might be used to seeing a distracted boyfriend, a dog sitting in an office that's on fire, or Drake in 'Hotline Bling' on Facebook or Instagram. But if you were to scroll through your child's TikTok feed — or overhear them talking about new memes — you might think they were looking at sneak peeks of an off-the-rails new Pixar film or that they were taking up a new language. More from SheKnows Your Teen Is Probably 'Aura Farming' - Here's What It Means (& Why It's Basically a Joke) Because what in the Grumpy Cat is 'Italian Brainrot?!' It's a new internet craze featuring a whole host of outlandish, AI-generated characters that have Italian-sounding names said in an exaggerated male text-to-speech voice alongside nonsensical phrases. Some names are inspired by actual Italian words, while others just have a similar cadence. According to Forbes, some of the top characters are Ballerina Cappuccina, a dancer with a coffee cup head, Tralalero Tralala, a three-legged shark wearing blue Nike kicks, and Lirili Laria, a sandal-wearing elephant-cactus hybrid walking through the desert. If you're trying to wrap your head around what sounds like a Mad Lib, we understand (and we're in the same boat). But these wild mashups have gained a cult-like following of young people who love to view and create the AI-generated memes. Why? Well … why do teens latch onto anything? Experts think the surreal and absurd characters have become something for teens and their peers to enjoy and laugh about when so many other parts of their lives might be difficult. This brainrot is a means of distraction. And no, if you've been biting your nails waiting to find out what 'brainrot' or 'brain rot' is, it's not a medical condition. Your child is not sick. 'Brain rot' — which was chosen as Oxford University Press' 2024 Word of the Year — just means spending excessive amounts of time on screens watching 'trivial' or 'unchallenging' content. And sure, that could supposedly impact someone's cognitive function in the same way excessive screen time could have a negative impact on anyone's health. So there is no need to necessarily be any more concerned than usual if your teen is constantly talking about Tralalero Tralala. Or, perhaps they are now fans of Mexican, German, or French Brainrot characters. They might even be enthralled with Tung Tung Tung Sahur, a stick of wood from Indonesia who sings with Ballerina Cappuccina in a video that has more than 5.4 million likes. In many ways, this is a modern way for teens to be creative and unwind. But (… we all knew there was a 'but' coming, right?), there are problems with the trend. Parents reports that some teachers are finding that students can easily derail a lesson by mentioning one of the characters or their catchphrase. And speaking of those catchphrases, some are being called offensive. Remember that Nike-loving shark? His voiceover says both 'Allah,' the Arabic word for 'god,' and 'porco,' an Italian word for pig. According to Forbes, members of the Muslim community are upset about this combination. 'No one will claim responsibility for the perceived Islamophobia — some say it's just an inadvertent coincidence stemming from absurdity,' Freddy Tran Nager, a clinical associate professor of communications at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, told the outlet. 'But it's not unusual for memes to be appropriated by extremist groups, such as Pepe the Frog being adopted by white nationalists.' And so Italian Brainrot does have the ability to be incredibly offensive. Especially when not all social media users speak the language most closely associated with the trend. Even some of the backstories of these beloved characters can lean into NSFW territory, and then, of course, there is the negative environmental impact of creating these AI-generated photos and videos in the first place. So, what should parents be doing about Italian Brainrot? Well, like with any technological craze, going over some boundaries is a good idea. Are there certain hours when kids have to stop scrolling (no matter how much they want to learn more about Chimpanzini Bananini)? Let them know that chatting with their friends about Bombardiro Crocodilo is probably OK … as long as it's not in the middle of biology class. And it's always a good idea to remind kids that they should research what they are saying before mindlessly repeating. Capisce?Best of SheKnows 'Post-Mother's Day Letdown' Is a Real & Valid Thing Every Single Celebrity Parent Who Welcomed Twins Beyoncé, Chris Hemsworth, & More Celebs Share the Most Important Life Lessons They've Learned From Their Moms
The Age
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
What does it take to be the enfant terrible of the cat world? Meet judge Steven Meserve
W hat makes someone a cat person? It's an elusive question for a seemingly innocuous creature, one that defined the early days of YouTube's viral videos (see: Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat and many more) and fuelled heated debate between Donald Trump and Taylor Swift, childless cat lady and international superstar. Mostly, though, you either love them or hate them. On the day that world-renowned cat judge Steven Meserve visits The Sydney Morning Herald, six award-winning show cats and owners in tow, the divide is similarly obvious. While some staff can barely contain their excitement, others maintain a cautious distance ('The only good cat is a dead cat,' remarks one colleague). For Meserve, 52, whose name has become inextricably tied to the feline stars he judges, the path to becoming cat person wasn't obvious. 'I did not grow up with cats, believe it or not,' he says. It wasn't until, at 18, he spied an advertisement for a Bengal cat in a local Boston newspaper that his fate was sealed. 'His name was Alex and this is the cat that changed me. You know, for non-cat people to become cat people they have to eventually have this connection with one cat – and they never realised [they were a cat person] until it happens.' Meserve and Alex did the rounds on the Boston 'cat fancy' circuit, but the hobby fell to the wayside when Meserve decided to go to college, later establishing a successful career in PR and marketing. His work took him out of his home town of Boston to San Francisco and eventually London, where he lived for more than 10 years working in fashion PR. In his spare time he worked with the International Cat Association (TICA), judging shows and eventually becoming their regional director for Europe. 'Sometimes I was at Paris Fashion Week or London Fashion Week and the next weekend I would go to a leisure centre in, like, South London, judging cats.' But cats have only recently become his bread and butter, in what he refers to as his 'second act'. Loving Cats Worldwide (LCWW), the organisation he founded in 2015 (which took off during the pandemic) and dedicated to cat events and expos, has made Meserve an internet sensation. On Instagram and TikTok he's amassed a combined half a million followers, and his most-watched TikTok video, of a fluffy grey Siberian, has more than 11.4 million views. Today, his work takes him around the world, from Tokyo to Amsterdam, Jakarta to Bogota. Meserve is speaking to this masthead in Sydney, ahead of a six-week tour of Australia headlining the inaugural Oz Feline Fair. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes Meserve's videos so captivating – adorable cats are, after all, a dime a dozen online these days. But Meserve is not one to be upstaged. He commands the stage with a swagger, lithely recounting his feline expertise while calmly stretching, stroking and lifting the cat for the audience to behold its full glory. There's an absurdity to the whole charade, too: Meserve's earnest and serious commentary at odds with the placid and bemused-looking cat. Meserve says it wasn't always this way. 'I was always a little awkward as a child. I mean, I really didn't come into myself until later on,' he says. Loading But on stage, a cat by his side, he is in his element. 'Animals have always felt safe with me,' he says. 'I was that person at the party who couldn't care less about the people and would always go hang out with the dog or the cat.' The work isn't for everyone. Judges must obtain formal qualifications, learning the unique characteristics of more than 70 breeds that shows acknowledge. Cats are judged according to a standard of points that correspond to their breed, which include everything from body length to nostril size, health and temperament. Judges must assess all this while putting on a show for the crowd and ensuring the cat stays calm and comfortable. 'We are talking for eight, 10 hours a day, and with zero breaks, with a cat on the table. And we're entertaining you but you're going to sit with me for 10 minutes, and then someone else is going to come, and I'm doing the same thing over and over again. We don't even ask stage actors to work that long. Never mind movie actors, right?' says Meserve. Founding LCWW and breaking out of the traditional cat fancy circuit hasn't been without controversy. Historically, Meserve says, cat competitions have been conducted in private and focused on pedigrees. With LCWW, his goal is to bring the cat fancy world to a new, younger audience and shine a light on rescue and mixed breed cats. Half of his 'CATstravaganza' show's categories are regularly devoted to non-pedigree cats, which includes rescues and household cats, while Meserve campaigns for rescue cats through his work with local shelters and a podcast, Everyone Can Have One More Cat. Criticism has come from both cat welfare advocates (who criticise the continued use of pedigree cats) and traditional show aficionados. 'You can say I'm like Vegemite, right? You either love me or you hate me. 'But we're disrupting an industry that's never been disrupted, and that is great because that needs to happen.' Outside of the spotlight, Meserve spends his time in Portugal, where he lives with his long-term partner Thiago Pellizaro, a Brazilian he met in London. The pair live in an 'old, 10-bedroom pink mansion in a little village south of Porto that hadn't been lived in for 20 years' with their six cats (including his 'heart cat', Stone, who has his own Instagram page) and two King Charles cavaliers. Pellizaro is now training to be a cat judge himself – evidence that no one in Meserve's orbit is immune to the allure of cats.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
What does it take to be the enfant terrible of the cat world? Meet judge Steven Meserve
W hat makes someone a cat person? It's an elusive question for a seemingly innocuous creature, one that defined the early days of YouTube's viral videos (see: Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat and many more) and fuelled heated debate between Donald Trump and Taylor Swift, childless cat lady and international superstar. Mostly, though, you either love them or hate them. On the day that world-renowned cat judge Steven Meserve visits The Sydney Morning Herald, six award-winning show cats and owners in tow, the divide is similarly obvious. While some staff can barely contain their excitement, others maintain a cautious distance ('The only good cat is a dead cat,' remarks one colleague). For Meserve, 52, whose name has become inextricably tied to the feline stars he judges, the path to becoming cat person wasn't obvious. 'I did not grow up with cats, believe it or not,' he says. It wasn't until, at 18, he spied an advertisement for a Bengal cat in a local Boston newspaper that his fate was sealed. 'His name was Alex and this is the cat that changed me. You know, for non-cat people to become cat people they have to eventually have this connection with one cat – and they never realised [they were a cat person] until it happens.' Meserve and Alex did the rounds on the Boston 'cat fancy' circuit, but the hobby fell to the wayside when Meserve decided to go to college, later establishing a successful career in PR and marketing. His work took him out of his home town of Boston to San Francisco and eventually London, where he lived for more than 10 years working in fashion PR. In his spare time he worked with the International Cat Association (TICA), judging shows and eventually becoming their regional director for Europe. 'Sometimes I was at Paris Fashion Week or London Fashion Week and the next weekend I would go to a leisure centre in, like, South London, judging cats.' But cats have only recently become his bread and butter, in what he refers to as his 'second act'. Loving Cats Worldwide (LCWW), the organisation he founded in 2015 (which took off during the pandemic) and dedicated to cat events and expos, has made Meserve an internet sensation. On Instagram and TikTok he's amassed a combined half a million followers, and his most-watched TikTok video, of a fluffy grey Siberian, has more than 11.4 million views. Today, his work takes him around the world, from Tokyo to Amsterdam, Jakarta to Bogota. Meserve is speaking to this masthead in Sydney, ahead of a six-week tour of Australia headlining the inaugural Oz Feline Fair. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes Meserve's videos so captivating – adorable cats are, after all, a dime a dozen online these days. But Meserve is not one to be upstaged. He commands the stage with a swagger, lithely recounting his feline expertise while calmly stretching, stroking and lifting the cat for the audience to behold its full glory. There's an absurdity to the whole charade, too: Meserve's earnest and serious commentary at odds with the placid and bemused-looking cat. Meserve says it wasn't always this way. 'I was always a little awkward as a child. I mean, I really didn't come into myself until later on,' he says. Loading But on stage, a cat by his side, he is in his element. 'Animals have always felt safe with me,' he says. 'I was that person at the party who couldn't care less about the people and would always go hang out with the dog or the cat.' The work isn't for everyone. Judges must obtain formal qualifications, learning the unique characteristics of more than 70 breeds that shows acknowledge. Cats are judged according to a standard of points that correspond to their breed, which include everything from body length to nostril size, health and temperament. Judges must assess all this while putting on a show for the crowd and ensuring the cat stays calm and comfortable. 'We are talking for eight, 10 hours a day, and with zero breaks, with a cat on the table. And we're entertaining you but you're going to sit with me for 10 minutes, and then someone else is going to come, and I'm doing the same thing over and over again. We don't even ask stage actors to work that long. Never mind movie actors, right?' says Meserve. Founding LCWW and breaking out of the traditional cat fancy circuit hasn't been without controversy. Historically, Meserve says, cat competitions have been conducted in private and focused on pedigrees. With LCWW, his goal is to bring the cat fancy world to a new, younger audience and shine a light on rescue and mixed breed cats. Half of his 'CATstravaganza' show's categories are regularly devoted to non-pedigree cats, which includes rescues and household cats, while Meserve campaigns for rescue cats through his work with local shelters and a podcast, Everyone Can Have One More Cat. Criticism has come from both cat welfare advocates (who criticise the continued use of pedigree cats) and traditional show aficionados. 'You can say I'm like Vegemite, right? You either love me or you hate me. 'But we're disrupting an industry that's never been disrupted, and that is great because that needs to happen.' Outside of the spotlight, Meserve spends his time in Portugal, where he lives with his long-term partner Thiago Pellizaro, a Brazilian he met in London. The pair live in an 'old, 10-bedroom pink mansion in a little village south of Porto that hadn't been lived in for 20 years' with their six cats (including his 'heart cat', Stone, who has his own Instagram page) and two King Charles cavaliers. Pellizaro is now training to be a cat judge himself – evidence that no one in Meserve's orbit is immune to the allure of cats.
Business Mayor
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
Sydney woman who sold a cartoon cat T-shirt told to pay US$100,000 in Grumpy Cat copyright case
Alda Curtis, a 63-year-old counselling student from Sydney, set up a Redbubble store as a hobby, including selling a T-shirt featuring an unhappy cat cartoon. After years of running the store, a single sale of that T-shirt resulted in a US$100,000 default judgment against her for infringing on the trademark of Grumpy Cat late last year. Then Curtis noticed nearly US$600 had been taken from her PayPal account. Grumpy Cat, also known as Tardar Sauce, shot to internet fame in 2012 due to her permanently grumpy facial expressions that were caused by a permanent underbite and feline dwarfism. The American domestic cat became a symbol for everyone on the internet who felt disgruntled about life, with millions of followers on social media, memes, merchandise including clothing and soft toys, and even a fragrance. At the peak of the cat's fame in 2014, the film Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever was released. It starred the grumpy cat herself, voiced by Aubrey Plaza. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an aggregate score of 27%. The world of internet stardom moves on quickly, however, and Grumpy Cat's fame has dimmed since Tardar Sauce died in 2019, aged 7. But the ghost of the frowny feline still haunts anyone trying to sell a product that could be confused with the real Grumpy Cat. The owner of the Grumpy Cat trademark is ever vigilant for unauthorised products sold online. Last year, Grumpy Cat Ltd filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against more than 200 online sellers in an Ohio court. They sought damages for products sold on sites such as RedBubble that allegedly infringed on the trademark. Alda Curtis, 63, received a default judgment against her for a T-shirt sold on RedBubble. Photograph: Supplied In September last year, the court ruled a default judgment in favour of Grumpy Cat Ltd. The company was awarded damages of US$100,000 per defendant. If the payments were made in full, the company would win more than US$24m. The sellers have also been restrained from continuing to sell the products identified, forcing the removal from the online stores. Curtis set up a Redbubble store as a hobby while studying counselling in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. She first became aware of the Grumpy Cat Ltd case against her two weeks after the default judgment in Ohio. The problem for Curtis was one item she sold: a T-shirt of a frowning purple and yellow cat. She said the sale had been made just before the US lawsuit was launched against her. The T-shirt had sat unsold for years on her site. The design for the T-shirt had been licensed from a design website, titled 'Grumpy Cat Pattern Graphic T-shirt'. Curtis earned just over US$1 from the sale. In the six years she had been running her store, she had generated about US$200 in revenue. Curtis said she had 'absolutely no intentions' of infringing the trademark. 'I've seen a picture of that cat, but I didn't even cross my mind that was in any copyright infringement or anything like that,' she said. 'So it was totally just a fluke, and they're taking advantage of that. If everyone in the world is going to be not allowed to call [a design] Happy Cat, Grumpy Cat, feathered cat, or whatever it might be … where does it end?' In February, a few months after the ruling, Curtis discovered US$592.75 was missing from her PayPal account, without explanation. After multiple attempts to contact PayPal to try to get the money back, Curtis said PayPal referred her to Grumpy Cat's lawyers. Others across the globe have found themselves in similar situations. There are posts on Reddit asking what to do after finding a default judgment has been made against them. 'I had no idea 'Grumpy Cat' was a thing. 'Grumpy Cat' was not even mentioned on my design neither looked my design like their stupid cat,' one poster said. Prof Graeme Austin, chair in private law at Victoria University in New Zealand, said US trademark law gives courts powers to impose tough damages awards in infringement cases, including statutory damages of up to US$200,000. 'Wholesale default judgment proceedings in trademark and copyright cases are a familiar strategy for intellectual property owners,' he said. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion 'They can be a useful tool for trademark owners – but they risk imposing very harsh remedies on individual defendants who might have had good defences if they had acted sooner.' Austin said such cases were not unusual, and it was important for anyone served with a complaint to act quickly. 'The last thing you want is to be swept up in proceedings against a large group of other defendants. You want to be in the position to raise any defences as early as possible.' Curtis said it could be a case of what has been termed 'SAD Scheme'. In a 2023 Columbia Law Review Forum article, Prof Eric Goldman described the 'Schedule A Defendants Scheme' in the northern district of Illinois – where the Grumpy Cat case was filed – targeting online merchants in China, mostly. Goldman said the scheme allowed rights owners 'to extract settlements from online merchants without satisfying basic procedural safeguards like serving the complaint and establishing personal jurisdiction over defendants'. Goldberg argued the scheme 'goes far beyond just curbing online infringement and instead causes substantial harm to innocent merchants'. Australian copyright law expert Fiona Phillips said the US-based PayPal taking the US$592.75 from Curtis's account was the company enforcing its user agreement, which outlines funds may be taken in response to a court order. 'It is an interesting development in the enforcement of IP across national borders and a further reason for people to pay more attention to the terms and conditions,' she said. Curtis is now battling to have the default judgment vacated. In response to her filing in the court, lawyers for Grumpy Cat have argued that service was made to Curtis' Gmail account on 2 May 2024, and have sought to have the motion dismissed on the grounds that Curtis has filed the motion under her name, not in the name of the online seller name she had used. The company also argued that the trademark infringement was due to the name of the product being 'Grumpy Cat Pattern Graphic T-Shirt'. Curtis said a search of her inbox shows no email from the lawyers until the first one she received in September. A ruling has yet to be made. Lawyers for Grumpy Cat offered to settle the case for US$1,000 in an email to Curtis in March, seen by Guardian Australia. Users on Reddit have reported similar offers. In 2018, Grumpy Cat Ltd won $750,000 in damages from a US coffee company for violating the terms of their agreement to use the cat's image on a line of iced coffee drinks called 'Grumppuccinos'. Grumpy Cat's owners said the company had 'blatantly infringed' their copyrights and trademarks when they began selling roasted coffee and Grumppucino T-shirts featuring Tardar Sauce's face. As of 2024, it was reported that Grumpy Cat Ltd had filed more than 50 lawsuits related to the use of Grumpy Cat in unauthorised merchandise. Grumpy Cat's lawyers and PayPal were contacted for comment.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Sydney woman who sold a cartoon cat T-shirt told to pay US$100,000 in Grumpy Cat copyright case
Alda Curtis, a 63-year-old counselling student from Sydney, set up a Redbubble store as a hobby, including selling a T-shirt featuring an unhappy cat cartoon. After years of running the store, a single sale of that T-shirt resulted in a US$100,000 default judgment against her for infringing on the trademark of Grumpy Cat late last year. Then Curtis noticed nearly US$600 had been taken from her PayPal account. Grumpy Cat, also known as Tardar Sauce, shot to internet fame in 2012 due to her permanently grumpy facial expressions that were caused by a permanent underbite and feline dwarfism. The American domestic cat became a symbol for everyone on the internet who felt disgruntled about life, with millions of followers on social media, memes, merchandise including clothing and soft toys, and even a fragrance. At the peak of the cat's fame in 2014, the film Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever was released. It starred the grumpy cat herself, voiced by Aubrey Plaza. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an aggregate score of 27%. The world of internet stardom moves on quickly, however, and Grumpy Cat's fame has dimmed since Tardar Sauce died in 2019, aged 7. But the ghost of the frowny feline still haunts anyone trying to sell a product that could be confused with the real Grumpy Cat. The owner of the Grumpy Cat trademark is ever vigilant for unauthorised products sold online. Last year, Grumpy Cat Ltd filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against more than 200 online sellers in an Ohio court. They sought damages for products sold on sites such as RedBubble that allegedly infringed on the trademark. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter In September last year, the court ruled a default judgment in favour of Grumpy Cat Ltd. The company was awarded damages of US$100,000 per defendant. If the payments were made in full, the company would win more than US$24m. The sellers have also been restrained from continuing to sell the products identified, forcing the removal from the online stores. Curtis set up a Redbubble store as a hobby while studying counselling in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. She first became aware of the Grumpy Cat Ltd case against her two weeks after the default judgment in Ohio. The problem for Curtis was one item she sold: a T-shirt of a frowning purple and yellow cat. She said the sale had been made just before the US lawsuit was launched against her. The T-shirt had sat unsold for years on her site. The design for the T-shirt had been licensed from a design website, titled 'Grumpy Cat Pattern Graphic T-shirt'. Curtis earned just over US$1 from the sale. In the six years she had been running her store, she had generated about US$200 in revenue. Curtis said she had 'absolutely no intentions' of infringing the trademark. 'I've seen a picture of that cat, but I didn't even cross my mind that was in any copyright infringement or anything like that,' she said. 'So it was totally just a fluke, and they're taking advantage of that. If everyone in the world is going to be not allowed to call [a design] Happy Cat, Grumpy Cat, feathered cat, or whatever it might be … where does it end?' In February, a few months after the ruling, Curtis discovered US$592.75 was missing from her PayPal account, without explanation. After multiple attempts to contact PayPal to try to get the money back, Curtis said PayPal referred her to Grumpy Cat's lawyers. Others across the globe have found themselves in similar situations. There are posts on Reddit asking what to do after finding a default judgment has been made against them. 'I had no idea 'Grumpy Cat' was a thing. 'Grumpy Cat' was not even mentioned on my design neither looked my design like their stupid cat,' one poster said. Prof Graeme Austin, chair in private law at Victoria University in New Zealand, said US trademark law gives courts powers to impose tough damages awards in infringement cases, including statutory damages of up to US$200,000. 'Wholesale default judgment proceedings in trademark and copyright cases are a familiar strategy for intellectual property owners,' he said. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'They can be a useful tool for trademark owners – but they risk imposing very harsh remedies on individual defendants who might have had good defences if they had acted sooner.' Austin said such cases were not unusual, and it was important for anyone served with a complaint to act quickly. 'The last thing you want is to be swept up in proceedings against a large group of other defendants. You want to be in the position to raise any defences as early as possible.' Curtis said it could be a case of what has been termed 'SAD Scheme'. In a 2023 Columbia Law Review Forum article, Prof Eric Goldman described the 'Schedule A Defendants Scheme' in the northern district of Illinois – where the Grumpy Cat case was filed – targeting online merchants in China, mostly. Goldman said the scheme allowed rights owners 'to extract settlements from online merchants without satisfying basic procedural safeguards like serving the complaint and establishing personal jurisdiction over defendants'. Goldberg argued the scheme 'goes far beyond just curbing online infringement and instead causes substantial harm to innocent merchants'. Australian copyright law expert Fiona Phillips said the US-based PayPal taking the US$592.75 from Curtis's account was the company enforcing its user agreement, which outlines funds may be taken in response to a court order. 'It is an interesting development in the enforcement of IP across national borders and a further reason for people to pay more attention to the terms and conditions,' she said. Curtis is now battling to have the default judgment vacated. In response to her filing in the court, lawyers for Grumpy Cat have argued that service was made to Curtis' Gmail account on 2 May 2024, and have sought to have the motion dismissed on the grounds that Curtis has filed the motion under her name, not in the name of the online seller name she had used. The company also argued that the trademark infringement was due to the name of the product being 'Grumpy Cat Pattern Graphic T-Shirt'. Curtis said a search of her inbox shows no email from the lawyers until the first one she received in September. A ruling has yet to be made. Lawyers for Grumpy Cat offered to settle the case for US$1,000 in an email to Curtis in March, seen by Guardian Australia. Users on Reddit have reported similar offers. In 2018, Grumpy Cat Ltd won $750,000 in damages from a US coffee company for violating the terms of their agreement to use the cat's image on a line of iced coffee drinks called 'Grumppuccinos'. Grumpy Cat's owners said the company had 'blatantly infringed' their copyrights and trademarks when they began selling roasted coffee and Grumppucino T-shirts featuring Tardar Sauce's face. As of 2024, it was reported that Grumpy Cat Ltd had filed more than 50 lawsuits related to the use of Grumpy Cat in unauthorised merchandise. Grumpy Cat's lawyers and PayPal were contacted for comment.
