The Third Circuit appeal court upheld an injunction on Thursday 1 August against Kangaroo Manufacturing for copying Rasta Imposta’s famous banana costume.
Though Kangaroo argued that the banana costume could not be copyrighted, the Philadelphia-based federal appeals court ruled in favour of Rasta Imposta.
Rasta Imposta noted that it had a former business relationship with the founder of Kangaroo, saying that the company knew the costume was copyrighted and had even sold the original costume previously.
The appeals court noted 20 different banana costume designs and found that Kangaroo copied a number of features found on Rasta’s costume, including the curved lines which come down the sides and the black tips of the banana.
“Although a banana costume is likely to be curved, it need not be — let alone in any particular manner,” said U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman. “And although a banana costume is likely to have ends that resemble a natural bananas, those tips need not look like Rasta’s black tips.”
“The protection of intellectual property rights is particularly important to companies like Rasta Imposta,which pride themselves on creating unique and innovative costume designs,” commented Flaster Greenberg attorney Alexis Arena, who was working for Rasta Imposta.
