Paul Frank Ends Fight for 'Julius'
Paul Frank Sunich, ousted Paul Frank Industries co-founder and designer, has ended his legal fight for “Julius the Monkey,” the company’s most recognizable ambassador.
Sunich, who left PFI in November 2005, filed a pair of lawsuits in March against the company he helped found in 1995. A copyright infringement suit, filed in the U.S. District Court’s California Central District, claimed that the company infringed on Sunich’s copyright and demanded reimbursement for its use of the Julius character since Sunich left the company. He filed a second lawsuit seeking to dissolve the company.
Julius was the brainchild of the designer and was originally used to adorn the vinyl wallets Sunich hand-made and sold before launching the company. In the suit, he argued that as the creator of Julius the Monkey, he retained sole ownership of the image and asked the court to halt PFI from selling merchandise bearing its likeness. Sunich alleged that he alone registered Julius with the Register of Copyrights in the Library of Congress and never transferred ownership of the image to anyone else.
PFI co-founders John Oswald and Ryan Heuser maintained that Julius and the characters based on him were property of the company. An Aug. 23 statement from PFI announced that Sunich had dismissed the copyright infringement lawsuit and conceded that Julius did not belong to him. In the statement, Heuser said he was “disappointed Paul felt the need to file this frivolous suit. I’m grateful we are coming to the end of this chapter, so we can all move forward.”
Sunich could not be reached for comment.
The second lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the company, is still pending.
According to Sunich’s lawyer, Howard King, PFI “Discovered and furnished us with a 2004 document which Paul, Ryan and John signedhellip;We believe that document, which confirms Paul was the creator of Julius, effects a transfer of Paul’s copyright of Julius to PFI.” He said Sunich has offered to dismiss the pending copyright case, but that PFI has yet to agree to the dismissal. Going forward, Sunich and his lawyers will focus on the pending case, which seeks “the fair value” of Sunich’s 30 percent interest in PFI.
As Sunich gets ready to debut a new line of T-shirts in collaboration with Boone’s Farm and Earth Tones Trading Co. at the MAGIC Marketplace Aug. 28 to 31 in Las Vegas, PFI has sent Sunich and the two companies a letter warning of its intention to file suit against them for trademark infringement, misappropriation, dilution, misrepresentation, false advertising and unfair competition.
King dismissed PFI’s efforts as an attempt to coerce Sunich into dropping his dissolution suit.
“We also continue to resist PFI’s scorched-earth tactics in trying to prevent Paul Frank from offering his designs to others,” he said. —Erin Barajas
