Peppa Pig has won a High Court ruling that rival cartoon Wolfoo copied its sound clips. The popular Vietnamese wolf character's videos have been ordered off YouTube and other platforms after the judge found the copying was 'prolific' and 'long-standing'.
Hasbro legal action
Entertainment giant Hasbro, which owns Peppa Pig, took legal action against Vietnamese animation firm SConnect, accusing it of pinching audio from the hit children's show. The court heard that Wolfoo episodes took short clips of Peppa and her family saying words including 'hooray!'.
Mr Justice Smith ordered that all videos featuring Wolfoo be removed before 4pm on Monday. The ruling applies across the UK, the European Union and all 166 World Trade Organisation member states, including the US and Vietnam.
Evidence of copying
The judge said experts found Peppa Pig audio in every one of the 92 English-language Wolfoo videos examined, as well as around three quarters of the foreign-language versions. He described the evidence of copying as 'compelling'.
SConnect denied deliberately breaching copyright. The company claimed some older videos made before mid-2020 contained Peppa audio because an outside contractor had used the clips without its knowledge. It also insisted newer episodes used only sounds created in-house.
But the judge rejected those arguments, saying it did not matter who supplied the audio. He also found that while many offending videos had been taken down, others had simply been moved to different channels, and said claims all newer sounds were original 'can be disproved'.
Legal significance
Andrew Lee, who represented Hasbro, called it a 'significant judgment'. He said taking the case through the UK courts meant the company could protect the Peppa Pig brand around the world without having to launch separate legal battles in every country. SConnect was contacted for comment.
