French children's book author Franck Le Calvez, who suited Disney claiming FINDING NEMO infringed on his creation orange-and-white clown fish named Pierrot, was convicted of fraud on April 20, 2005, and now must pay nearly $80,000 in damages and legal fees, according to Canada.com.
He had lost his first case in March when a court ruled that the characters were similar, but not enough to confuse people. Still feeling he was in the right, he launched a second legal claim, which flipped the blame to Le Calvez, stating that he created the character after Nemo and knew about the character beforehand.
Le Calvez was ordered to pay $49,600 in damages and interest to Disney and Pixar Animation and to France-based publisher Disney-Hachette Editions. Additionally, he must reimburse legal fees of $30,000 to the three companies and to pay to have the ruling printed in three publications of Disney's choice.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
