Bearing Down On Disney Teddy Bear Merchant Sues Entertainment Giant

The Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc. is suing the Walt Disney Co. for copyright infringement, alleging the entertainment giant purloined its trademark mail-order “Bear-Gram” ideas and logo.

Vermont Teddy Bear asked the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for an injunction to stop Disney from selling its “Pooh-Grams” line of bears and also requested unspecified damages.

“They have not only copied the trademark and the logo, but they have copied virtually every aspect of our “Bear-Gram” format, from the way the product is personalized to the way the product is delivered, and even the way it’s advertised,” said Liz Robert, Vermont Teddy Bear’s chief financial officer.

Officials at Disney declined to comment.

Vermont Teddy Bear, which is based in Shelburne, Vt., ships out a quarter-million plush bears a year to markets around the world. The company, which was founded in 1983, does 90 percent of its business in bears; the other 10 percent is in related products such as T-shirts, mugs, and other items.

The “Bear-Gram” is one of Vermont Teddy Bear’s most popular items, which can be ordered over a toll-free phone line or through catalog. Its “Bear-Gram” business began in 1990, while Disney stepped up its “Pooh-Gram” promotions in the last year, Robert said.

But consumers in recent months have started to confuse the products, some even calling Vermont Teddy Bear looking for Disney products, Robert said.

“It was at that point that we got more aggressive about asking them to stop,” Robert said. Vermont Teddy Bear then wrote to Disney, who wrote back saying they didn’t believe they were infringing, she said.

Competition from Disney is one Vermont Teddy Bear can’t afford right now after losing $1.2 million in the first nine months of its fiscal year due to overexpansion of businesses.

The lawsuit was filed May 16 in federal court in Alexandria.