March 23, 1999

The Teletubbies Take On the Bubbly Chubbies as Cute Goes to Court

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Teletubbies" -- those four cuddly, cooing, antenna-topped dolls that arrived on American television from Britain last year and have generated $800 million in sales from spinoff toys and other kiddie products -- have distinctive features: human but "extraplanetary," their makers and marketers say.

"Bubbly Chubbies," four cuddly dolls that arrived in Wal-Mart's 2,435 stores this month, have remarkably similar features: pastel colors, large cute eyes and button noses, protruding earlike headphones, and squat, chubby bodies -- rather human but with an extraplanetary appearance.

Altogether too remarkable, Ragdoll Productions Ltd. and the Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Company, the owners and marketers of Teletubbies, contended Monday in a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan against Wal-Mart, the world's largest retail chain, with $137 billion in sales.

"The Bubbly Chubbies characters are obvious, studied knockoffs of the famous Teletubbies characters," the plaintiffs charged in a suit that accused Wal-Mart of trademark and copyright infringement and asked for unspecified damages and the immediate recall and destruction of all Bubbly Chubbies.

In addition to fashioning Bubbly Chubbies after Teletubbies to capitalize on the enormous demand for their products, Ragdoll and Itsy Bitsy contended, Wal-Mart chose the name Bubbly Chubbies "deliberately to rhyme with Teletubbies," and adopted a logo and packaging that is "an obvious and studied imitation."

The objective, Ragdoll and Itsy Bitsy said, was to "cause consumers to be confused in believing that the Bubbly Chubbies characters are the Teletubbies characters, or somehow related to, sponsored or approved by the owners of the Teletubbies characters."

Michael W. Maher, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ark., said last night that the company had not been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment, except to say: "The company would never knowingly infringe anyone's copyright."

Aimed at an audience of toddlers, the Teletubbies characters -- "Tinky Winky," "Laa-Laa," "Po," and "Dipsy" -- were created for a British Broadcasting Corporation television series that began in 1997 and became an overnight sensation. The series is now aired in 120 countries in 21 languages.

Starting in April 1998, the series began on the Public Broadcasting System in the United States, and is now broadcast on 323 PBS stations, reaching 97 percent of American households. Extensive marketing, features in newspapers and magazines and other promotions have turned the Teletubbies into cultural icons.

Through licensing agreements, cloth dolls, plastic figurines, pajamas, slippers, books, videos and other products based on the Teletubby characters have blitzed the United States and Canada, and many of the items have become top sellers.

Last year, a set of Teletubbies in some markets was being sold for up to $100, though individual plastic figures were available for $1.99.

Comparatively, the lawsuit said, the Bubbly Chubbies characters "are sold at a much lower price." It said that "constitutes unfair competition under the law of New York" and causes the plaintiffs "irreparable harm."