Unfortunately for Von Engelbrechten’s army of followers, the Calico Critters have been sober for months now. In April, Epoch sued the creator for “doubling her efforts to exploit Epoch’s copyrights and trademarks for her own commercial gain,” after it said it tried to work things out with her amicably, NBC News reports. The suit initially flew under the radar until outlets like Irish Independent—the first to report on the filing, per NBC—dug into the account’s silence. The last video Von Engelbrechten posted was a collaboration with Squid Game on January 19 of this year.
Von Engelbrechten has also collaborated with Burberry, Taco Bell, Sephora, Hilton, Marc Jacobs, Oatly, Supergoop, and more, which is really the crux of Epoch’s issue. The company argues that the creator has committed copyright and trademark infringement, as well as unfair competition. In its filing, Epoch writes that Sylvian Drama has caused “irreparable injury” to its reputation and diminished its licensing opportunities, per Vulture. “Defendant is ‘working to build Sylvanian Drama’s own brand image’ as an advertising and content creation service provider at the expense of Epoch’s goodwill it has built over decades,” the filing reads, suggesting that Epooch’s customers may incorrectly believe the company is affiliated with or authorizing the ads.
Epoch already tried to take action on this once. In 2023, the company served a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice, after which TikTok removed some of the allegedly infringing videos and temporarily locked the Sylvanian Drama account. Vulture reports that Von Engelbrechten eventually got the account back after arguing that the videos counted as “parody,” after which Epoch unsuccessfully tried to reach an amicable resolution for 11 months. The company alleges that Von Engelbrechten pressed on, which gave it “no choice but to file this lawsuit.” It now seeks a formal declaration that von Engelbrechten infringed on its copyright and committed acts of false endorsement, a court order preventing further alleged copyright infringement, and statutory damages of up to $150,000 per each infringed work, plus whatever profits Von Engelbrechten has made from the account, per Vulture. Sylvanian Drama fans may miss the mini episodes that played out while they scrolled, but at least they can temporarily follow all this drama behind the scenes.
