The San Diego Chicken, a mascot at professional baseball games, has a portion of his act in which he grabs a purple dinosaur and stomps it, stamps it, pounds it, and pummels it. Lyons Partnership, L.P., produces the Barney the Dinosaur television show, which features a purple dinosaur, and holds all its product licenses. Lyons filed suit against Ted Giannoulas (the man beneath the San Diego Chicken costume) for copyright infringement.

A Texas court classified the portion of Mr. Giannoulas’s act that involved a purple dinosaur as a form of parody or satire that was thereby protected by the Mr. Giannoulas, said that Mr. Giannoulas will seek to recover his attorney’s fees in the case.

Mr. Fitzgerald noted during the case that Barney has been spoofed by Jay Leno as well as on the television show Saturday Night Live, but Lyons chose only to pursue Mr. Giannoulas.

What is wrong with selective enforcement of one’s copyright protections? Is Barney the Dinosaur something that can be copyrighted? [Lyons Partnership v Giannoulas, 179 F.3d 384 (5th Cir. 1999)]