Tinky Winky is miffed, and Laa-Laa is livid! Even Dipsy has gone dippity! The Teletubbies are making war on Wal-Mart’s Bubbly Chubbies. What’s the difference, you ask, between a Teletubbie and a Bubbly Chubbie. Not much, and that’s the problem. The makers of Teletubbies, the British TV characters, have filed a suit in Manhattan charging that Wal-Mart is selling Bubbly Chubbies, an unauthorized copy of the original Teletubbies. But Wal-Mart says it required the makers of the Chubbies to get a lawyer to indicate that the Chubbies did not infringe on any trademark or copyright for the Tubbies. But the Tubbies are going after the Chubbies regardless of what some Pittsburgy lawfirm says. “The Bubbly Chubbies characters are obvious, studied knock-offs of the famous Teletubbies characters,” says the lawsuit. “The name Bubbly Chubbies was deliberately chosen to rhyme with Teletubbies and to communicate to children and their parents that the Bubbly Chubbies characters are chubby or tubby and have the same or similar attributes and evoke the same good will as the genuine Teletubbies,” the suit notes. I personally have a hard time distinguishing a Chubby from a Tubbie, and Wal-Mart admits that “clearly, the item is similar to the Teletubbies products”, which Wal-Mart also sells. Just conincidentally, Wal-Mart stock dropped $3 a share right around the time lawsuit was announced. Was it possible that the Tubbies sold all their stock in Wubby-Mart? These rip off and knock off lawsuits are getting to be quite common these days. Wal-Mart has been sued by Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, the Tubbies and other manufacturers claiming that Wal-Mart is infringing on their patents. But Wal-Mart keeps Bubbling away, selling Chubbies like there was no tomorrow.
I sure hope Barney doesn’t get wind of this. And don’t say a word about this Teletubbie nonsense to Snoopy. He couldn’t handle it. Better yet, just stay away from Wal-Mart until this whole bubbly mess blows over.
