Posted by Gabriella Pecoraro.
The up-and-coming company Jazwares, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway since October of 2022, accused Build-A-Bear of stealing the design of their trending Squishmallow product. Build-A-Bear was sued by Jazwares on February 12th of this year and Build-A-Bear responded with a lawsuit in the same day. In the official complaint that was filed, the company Jazwares specifically accused Build-A-Bear of violating the rights of intellectual property.
Build-A-Bear has been looking to expand their brand from exclusively teddy bears and has been partaking in character sponsorships as well as introducing new product lines. Their most recent expansion of the brand was their product line, Skoosherz. Jazwares says that the company “blatantly and intentionally” stole the design from Squishmallows because of the immense amount of popularity and revenue Jazwares has been earning from that product. Jazwares goes as far as to claim that Build-A-Bear copied the design so consumers would not be able to differentiate between the two products.
From the lawsuit, Jazwares is looking for Build-A-Bear to discontinue their new product line as well as pay back three times the damage caused by the launch of Skoosherz. At the lawsuit taken place at the St. Louis federal court Build-A-Bear claims that their product Skoosherz are simply the trending type of soft pillow toy and not a direct duplicate of the Squishmallow design. In addition, Build-A-Bear argues in court that Squishmallows “lack a consistent look and feel” and that their brand is exclusively looking to follow the most recent stuffed animal trends. Build-A-Bear is seeking a court declaration that their brand did not infringe upon Jazwares’ “trade dress” rights at the end of the lawsuit. The lawsuit is ongoing and the lawyers defending Build-A-Bear have yet to provide any additional information and comments about the state of the current situation.
Gabriella is a marketing major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2026.