The owners of a cat made famous online because of its permanent scowl have been awarded 569,334 euros in a case by a California federal court.
Grumpy Cat Limited sued the owners of US coffee company Grenade for exceeding an agreement over the cat’s image.
The company only had rights to use the cat to sell its “Grumppuccino” iced drink, but sold other Grumpy products.
The cat, real name Tardar Sauce, went viral in 2012 after photographs of her sour expression emerged online.
Originally posted on the social website Reddit by the brother of the cat’s owner, Tabatha Bundesen, the image of the cat quickly spread as a meme with funny text captions.
In 2013 Grenade Beverage, owned by father and son Nick and Paul Sandford, struck a 120,281-euro deal to market iced coffee beverages with the cat’s scowl on its packaging.
source: BBC.com