Millionaire Warren Buffet, known as one of the world's leading investors, is involved in a lawsuit involving…soft toys.
His company, Jazwares, accuses Build-a-Bear of infringing on the intellectual property of its Squishmallows line of plush toys through Skoosherz.
Squishmallow is a very popular oval-shaped plush pillow in the USA, which usually contains figures of smiling creatures, in total more than 3 thousand models, among which is a copy of Warren Buffet himself transformed into a pillow.
This product is manufactured by Kelly Toys, one of the many brands of Jazwares. This company owns toy brands such as those from the Pokémon saga, Hello Kitty, or characters from video games such as Star Wars or Call of Duty.
Buffett believes Build-a-Bear imitated its stuffed animals and has filed a lawsuit against the other toy company, AP News reported.
In response, Build-a-Bear filed another lawsuit against Jazwares, saying that Skoosherz is relying on its existing line of plush toys and that the marketing around the product makes it clear who makes them.
Furthermore, they claim that they did so “blatantly” and that their plagiarism leads to consumers confusing the two brands. For its part, Build-A-Bear says that this type of product has been on the market for years and that there is nothing unique about this model, as revealed by elEconomista.
Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway bought Jazwares for $12 billion (about €11 billion) in 2022. Its rival, Build-A-Bear, is a listed company worth more than €279 million on the stock market.
This is not the first time that Jazwares has taken legal action to defend the intellectual property of its luxury pillows, as it did the same with Chinese giant Alibaba, which it also accused of copying Squishmallow.
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