Jury awards producers of YouTube’s CoComelon $23M for copyright infringement

Following a three week trial, a federal jury in San Francisco returned a $23 million verdict in favor of a children’s YouTube channel that accused its Chinese competitor of infringing on its proprietary material.

“We are incredibly pleased with this outcome. It has been fabulous working with such a great client that fully trusted our small and scrappy team going up against Quinn Emanuel,” said Ryan Tyz of the Tyz Law Group.

Babybus’ attorneys from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan could not immediately be reached for comment.

Moonbug’s “CoComelon” channel is the No. 1 ranked children’s educational channel on YouTube. The lawsuit accused Babybus of plagiarizing CoComelon’s proprietary material, including character names, in their own series called “Super JoJo.” Moonbug Entertainment Limited et al. v. Babybus (Fujian) Network Technology Co., Ltd, 3:21-cv-06536-EMC, (N.D. Ca., filed Aug. 24, 2021)

Jennifer Kelly, the plaintiff’s attorney also from the Tyz Law Group, emphasized the importance of safeguarding artistic expression and protecting the rights of content creators. “The owners and creators of valuable intellectual property must stand firm against flagrant plagiarists,” she said.

Throughout the trial, Tyz and his team presented evidence to illustrate Babybus’ plagiarism. They demonstrated how the defendants replicated numerous elements of the series, from the main character JJ to the framing, cinematography, structure, and overall aesthetics of the episodes in their own series, Super JoJo.

The jury deliberated for three days last week before returning its verdict on Thursday. They found that the defendant willfully infringed upon Moonbug’s copyrighted property.

“We are absolutely thrilled with the jury’s unanimous verdict that Babybus’ SuperJoJo series willfully infringes our copyrights in CoComelon,” Rob Miller, Moonbug’s chief legal officer, said. “This verdict should serve as a warning that Moonbug will not stand by and allow infringers to free ride off our success, including by making a carbon copy of our beloved JJ character.”