Is Bert the Farting Hippo — the flatulent puppet and “NCIS” mascot — intellectual property?
The whole idea may smell funny to you, but not to Folkmanis, the Emeryville, Calif., puppet company that has been manufacturing the stuffed animal since 2002.
It took only a year for Bert, nee Hippo 1, to begin his extended and ongoing run on “NCIS.” His TV appearances have often been accompanied by what Folkmanis — in a suit filed Monday against “NCIS” network CBS and others — describes as the “dubbed sound effect of a fart.”
So Hippo 1 was renamed, and Bert the Farting Hippo (with an added sound effect) it became.
“This hippo stuffed animal actually makes noises,” proclaims a more recent ad for one of the CBS Store’s “best sellers.”
Folkmanis charges the CBS replacement puppets made in China are “slavish copies” that have cost it $733,000 in lost profits.
“We believe this to be a flatulent abuse of the legal system, and we intend to clear the air on this matter immediately,” according to a statement from CBS, which couldn’t resist a pun or two of its own.
It appears that CBS’s online store has already removed the subject of Folkmanis’ intellectual-property action.
A search for Bert the Farting Hippo conducted on Tuesday yielded: “Sorry. The page or product you were looking for is currently unavailable.”