Finally, Some Justice For Pooey Puitton

In December of last year, a toymaker named MGA Entertainment, which blessed the world with a very cute, slime-filled, and poop-shaped handbag named “Poopsie Pooey Puitton Slime Surprise Kit and Carrying Case,” filed a lawsuit against the real Louis Vuitton, fearing that the French brand was waiting to drop a lawsuit on them over intellectual property rights. Turns out, there is no evidence Pooey Puitton is in danger, and MGA Entertainment can keep selling its rainbow toys in peace.

On Tuesday, a judge dismissed MGA Entertainment’s case against Louis Vuitton, according to The Fashion Law. MGA Entertainment’s suit was really filed pre-emptively, on the basis that, in France, the fashion house had basically bitched loudly under its breath about how the Pooey Puitton toy violated its trademarks; in its complaint, MGA Entertainment stated the the Paris-based brand “claimed to one of MGA’s customers that the Pooey name and Pooey product infringed upon or diluted one or more of Louis Vuitton trademarks.” The toymaker feared Louis Vuitton’s North American branch would eventually agree and take MGA Entertainment to court over it.

A California federal judge essentially thought that was ridiculous. In more legal terms:

As Judge Walter stated in his decision, MGA failed to show that an “actual, present, and justiciable controversy has arisen between [the] plaintiff and [the] defendants concerning their respective rights.”

In fact, there’s no evidence that Louis Vuitton is thinking of suing MGA Entertainment over violating its trademark at all:

In fact, Judge Walter stated that MGA was not even able to show that Louis Vuitton had asserted its U.S. trademark rights or “ever communicated with MGA about the U.S. marks, claimed infringement or dilution of the U.S. marks, threatened or filed litigation asserting the U.S. marks, or taken any concrete action at all related to the Pooey Product and the Pooey Name in the U.S. and Louis Vuitton’s U.S. marks.”

This might be a little embarrassing for MGA Entertainment—what’s worse: your enemy hating your guts or your enemy never even thinking of you? But this non-existent drama between these two entities has been my favorite drama of the year so far. I see Tuesday’s decision good news all around. Parents can now buy the Poopsie Pooey Puitton Slime Surprise with confidence, and MGA Entertainment can develop even more of these bad boys. Louis Vuitton will go about minding its own business, apparently—happy to let lesser-than toymakers do their own thing. Rarely do things ever end so well!