New Jersey-based costume company Rasta Imposta has reached an out-of-court settlement with Kmart, after it accused the US retail giant of copying its famous banana costume.
“We’re going to continue selling to Kmart in the future,” Rasta Imposta CEO Robert Berman told CNBC, although no further details of the settlement have been provided.
Until this year, Kmart had carried Rasta Imposta’s banana suit every Halloween for the last decade. This year, ‘the parties had some difficulty reaching an agreement,’ and so Kmart sourced a banana costume from another supplier in a move which Rasta Imposta believes infringed its 2010 Banana Design copyright.
Rasta Imposta owns a copyright registration for its banana costume design – a full-body yellow peel with a black stem at the head and foot – with the U.S. Copyright Office.
The banana costume is a popular line for Rasta Imposta and thousands of the yellow suits are sold each year. “We’ve tried a lot of fruits and vegetables,” said Robert, “but there’s something about bananas that are inherently funny.”
“When you take a design that has the same pattern, that’s infringing. Bananas are copyright-able,” he continued, refuting that he was trying to secure a monopoly over the banana costume. “Be creative and come up with your own interpretation of the banana!”
