By Rick Carroll Pitkin County resident Marty Stouffer, whose documentary series “Wild America” ran 14 years on PBS, is accusing National Geographic of using his ideas and compromising his brand through a series of trademark violations.
Stouffer and his Aspen-based company, Marty Stouffer Productions, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Colorado claiming National Geographic Partners and a host of its divisions lifted the “Wild America” brand for their own video productions.
The lawsuit says Stouffer registered the Wild America mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1982, the same year the animal-show series debuted on PBS, “and has been the exclusive owner of the Wild America mark ever since.”
Stouffer and National Geographic, whose majority owner is 21st Century Fox, did not respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday.
“Wildlife America” originally featured brothers Marty and Mark Stouffer trekking across North America’s wildlands in a quest to capture rare nature videos. It was one of PBS’ most popular series, according to the lawsuit. Marty Stouffer Productions invested more than $24.5 million to advertise, promote and brand the series, the suit says.
The Stouffer brothers even once produced wildlife documentaries for National Geographic, while Mark worked for the Washington, D.C.-based organization until 2002, the suit says.
As recently as 2012, National Geographic negotiated with Marty Stouffer Productions about the possible purchase or licensing of the “Wild America” film library, but the deals didn’t materialize, according to the lawsuit.
Also in 2010, a high-ranking executive with National Geographic unsuccessfully sought permission from Marty Stouffer to title a miniseries called “Wild Americas” or “Wildest Americas,” instead rolling out a series called “Untamed Americas” in 2012 in the U.S. The same series currently is sold and marketed outside of the U.S. under the title “Wild America” on DVD and Blu-Ray, the suit claims.
“Unaware that the National Geographic defendants were improperly using the Wild America mark in conjunction with the Untamed America miniseries, (Marty Stouffer Productions) continued to negotiate and discuss licensing or selling the ‘Wild America’ film library to the National Geographic defendants,” the suit claims.
By 2013, National Geographic debuted the television series “America the Wild,” which “bears a striking resemblance to ‘Wild America,’ replicating the most minute details of ‘Wild America’ in its production,” the suit says.
With host Casey Anderson, “America the Wild” has mimicked Marty Stouffer’s work on “Wild America,” such as Anderson’s interactions with grizzly bears that were similar to those of Stouffer’s, the suit claims.
“The similarities between ‘America the Wild’ and ‘Wild America’ are wide-ranging, including an uncanny similarity between each show’s host,” the suit claims.
The suit continues: “The National Geographic defendants specifically copy many iconic images from ‘Wild America,’ including, among others, the image of two big horn sheep head-butting one another.”
National Geographic’s documentary series “Surviving Wild America” and “Untamed Americas” also have built “on the goodwill and brand recognition of MSP’s ‘Wild America,'” the suit says, noting Stouffer’s production company made another 10 half-hour episodes and 12 one-hour documentaries that were sold as VHS and DVD home videos in …read more
Via:: Post Independent