A Parisian judge, on March 12, 2004, threw out a claim made by French children's author Franck Le Calvez that would stop the sale of FINDING NEMO merchandise in France, reported the DOW JONES BUSINESS JOURNAL. Le Calvez claims that NEMO is a copyright infringement of his 2002 book PIERROT LE POISSON CLOWN, which features a lead clown fish character who looks strikingly like Nemo.
Judge Louis-Marie Raingeard de la Bletiere initial ruled that there was many similarities between the two character, however in his most recent ruling he found that the similarities were not enough to cause confusion in the minds of consumers.
Le Calvez's copyright infringement lawsuit is still pending and will begin hearing in October.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
