'Emily the Strange' Creators File Copyright Suit

It's a case of beating them to the punch. The creators of the popular goth girl character Emily the Strange are suing the authors of a book from the 1970s featuring a girl who looks very similar to Emily.

Rob Reger and his company Cosmic Debris, Etc, Inc. have filed suit against Marjorie Sharmat and Marc Simont, author and illustrator of the "Nate the Great" series (Random), as a preemptive measure—they want a judge to declare that Emily doesn’t infringe on the copyright of the 1978 book.

Cosmic Debris says it’s responding to online discussion late last year pointing out the similarities between Reger’s 1991 creation Emily and Sharmat and Simont’s 1978 creation Rosamond—both of whom have long black hair, wear short black dresses, and white Mary Jane shoes, and are accompanied by black cats.

A 2006 blog posting titled "Emily the Rip-Off" on CoffeeGhost.net was one of the first to identify the striking likeness between the two characters. YouThoughtWeWouldntNotice.com is yet another blog that’s made the connection between Emily and Rosamond. Prior to those postings, neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants say they were aware of a possible copyright infringement.

The recurring Rosamond made her first appearance in Nate the Great Goes Undercover (1981), even gracing the cover of the third book in the series, Nate the Great and the Lost List (1978, both Random), which shows her peering out a window at Nate.

Reger's friend Nathan Carrico designed Emily in 1991, and she first showed up on a free sticker that was distributed at concerts, record stores, and skate shops to promote Cosmic Debris, the clothing line founded by Reger, a skateboarder, and racecar driver Matt Reed. The release of Emily the Strange: The Lost Days (HarperCollins, 2009), the first in a series of four novels starring 13-year-old Emily, is also expected on June 2.

Reger says that although the designs and worlds of Rosamond and Emily are “different and readily distinguishable, and although we never received any complaints from the author, the artist, or the publisher,” his company phased out the original skateboard design upon learning of the Rosamond character, and worked with the creative team to further distinguish Emily and her universe.

“Regarding copyright law, there is legally nothing wrong with sharing or implementing a unique variation on a concept,” Reger adds. “I have never drawn inspiration from the "Nate the Great" series or Rosamond. In fact, we at Cosmic Debris have always moved to individualize the idea of Emily the Strange and her universe, which are original to Cosmic Debris.”

Meanwhile, the 94-year-old Simont, who won the Caldecott Medal for A Tree Is Nice (Scholastic, 1956), wrote on Laughingsquid.com that he and Sharmat have referred the issue to their publisher’s legal department.

“We have not had any contact with Cosmic Debris,” Simont wrote. “Marjorie has the rights to the text, and I have the rights to the illustrations. The illustrations are copyrighted in my name.”

The attorneys for Cosmic Debris, Etc, Inc. have filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Northern California against Sharmat and Simont, claiming that their character is a “Goth GIRL” similar to Morticia and Wednesday of the Addams Family or Lydia in Beetlejuice and therefore does not pose a copyright infringement.