A High Court judge in London has ordered the removal of all videos featuring the animated character Wolfoo from online platforms after finding the series guilty of copyright infringement against Peppa Pig. The ruling follows a lawsuit by Hasbro, the US entertainment company that owns the rights to Peppa Pig, against SConnect, the Vietnamese makers of Wolfoo.
Copyright Ruling and Removal Order
The judge described the copying as “prolific” and “longstanding”, stating that the evidence of “copying of the audio clips is compelling”. The order requires all Wolfoo videos to be removed before 4pm BST on Monday from platforms such as YouTube, YouTube Kids, and the official Wolfoo World website.
Wolfoo is an animated series featuring a young wolf living with his family, which has garnered hundreds of millions of views online. The case centred on short audio clips of Peppa and her family saying words like “Hooray!” that appeared in Wolfoo videos.
Defence and Court Findings
SConnect denied the claims, arguing that videos made before mid-2020 used Peppa Pig audio due to an independent third-party contractor adding those sounds without their knowledge. They claimed that all later videos used original, in-house created sounds and that any infringing videos had already been removed.
However, the High Court judge rejected these arguments, noting that Peppa Pig sound clips were found in all 92 English-language Wolfoo videos examined, and in 75% of foreign-language videos. The judge said blaming third-party contractors was “irrelevant” and that the claim about original sounds after mid-2020 “can be disproved”.
Background of the Case
The legal action began in 2022 when Hasbro and Peppa Pig’s creators, London-based Astley Baker Davies, accused SConnect of attempting “to deceive the young Wolfoo viewership, most aged between two and five, into believing that Wolfoo is the same character as Peppa Pig”. They also alleged similarities in appearance and artwork, but focused on audio as the area where copyright infringement was easiest to prove.
SConnect argued that the removal order should apply only to the examined videos and that the ruling covering the UK, EU, and all 166 World Trade Organization member states was “too broad”. The judge countered that the copying was “extensive, seemingly endemic at least so far as the English-language Wolfoo videos are concerned”.
Wolfoo was released in 2018, available in English and dubbed into languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, and Spanish, targeting children aged two to seven, similar to Peppa Pig. SConnect and Hasbro have been approached for comment.
