Lady Gaga Hair - P 2011
LONDON – She is no stranger to appearing in as many surreal ways as possible, but it looks as though Lady Gaga has less tolerance about being spoofed.
The singer has won an injunction in London against popular kids website Moshi Monsters, preventing its British parent company Mind Candy from releasing a single from its cartoon character Lady Goo Goo.
In an all-day hearing at the High Court, Mr Justice Vos said Mind Candy was prevented from “promoting, advertising, selling, distributing or otherwise making available to the public The Moshi Dance or any musical work or video which purports to be performed by a character by the name of Lady Goo Goo, or which otherwise uses the name Lady Goo Goo or any variant thereon.”
The video, which was released on YouTube but has now been removed, features the long-fringed blonde animated baby, wearing trademark black shades, in The Moshi Dance.
Clearly a parody of the hit global singer, Lady Goo Goo sings such lyrics as “my stroller’s pretty and my diapers are silk, I throw my toys out if I don’t get my milk” and “my crazy outfits seem to shock.”
With around 50 million users worldwide, the world of Moshi Monsters has created a series of online characters that 6-12 year old children can interact with, adopt and play games with.
Lady Gaga herself claimed the spoof would likely cause consumer confusion.
Michael Acton Smith, the founder of Mind Candy, tweeted Friday that the judgment sent “a dangerous precedent.”
“The ruling could set a dangerous precedent in trademark law impacting tribute bands and parody songs. Not a good day for creatives.”
He also said the court’s decision was “a huge disappointment” because children could easily tell the difference between the characters.
“The shame is that millions of kids fell in love with Lady Goo Goo’s debut single on YouTube and now won’t be able to enjoy her musical exploits. It was all done in the name of fun and we would have thought that Lady Gaga could have seen the humor behind this parody.”
