Case 2:13-cv-02824-JFW-MRW Document 1 Filed 04/22/13 Page 1 of 18 Page ID #:27 FILED 1 KING, HOLMES, PATERNO & BERLINER LLP HOWARD E. KiNG, ESQ., STATE BAR No. 77012 2 STEPHEND.RoTHSCHILD,EsQ.,STATEBARNo.132514 zon M'R 22 PM 4: 00
[email protected] TH 3 1900 AVENUE OF THE STARS 25 FLOOR Los ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90067-4506 4 TELEPHONE: (310) 282-8989 FACSIMILE: (310) 282-8903 5 Attorneys for Plaintiffs Charles Schmidt 6 and Christopher Orlando Torres 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, WESTERN DIVISION 10 4 11 CHARLES L. SCHl'vIIDT an cAsU.13 - 02 82 rr: \ individual; CHRISTOPHER 12 ORLANDO TORRES, an individual, COMPLAINT FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, TRADEMARK 13 Plaintiffs, INFRINGEMENT, UNFAIR COMPETITION and AN 14 vs. ACCOUNTING 15 WARNER BROS. DEMAND FOR JURy TRIAL ENTERTAI~NT, INC., a Delaware 16 corporation; 5 CELL MEDIA, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, 17 Defendants. 18 19 Plaintiffs Charles L. Schmidt ("Schmidt") and Christopher Orlando Torres 20 ("Torres") (collectively, "plaintiffs"), hereby allege as follows: 21 BACKGROUND OF THIS ACTION 22 1. This case is to remedy defendants Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. 23 ("WB") and 5th Cell Media, LLC's ("5th,,) willful infringement of plaintiffs' 24 copyrights and trademarks in the memes "Keyboard Cat" and "Nyan Cat." 25 "Keyboard Cat" and "Nyan Cat" are known and enjoyed by tens of millions of 26 people. That popularity makes them extremely valuable for commercial uses. th 27 Unlike WB and 5 , many other companies, respecting plaintiffs' intellectual 28 property rights, regularly pay substantial license fees to use plaintiffs' memes 4107.060/642728.1 COMPLAINT Case 2:13-cv-02824-JFW-MRW Document 1 Filed 04/22/13 Page 2 of 18 Page ID #:28 1 commercially.