Blehm v. Jacobs: Can you Infringe the Copyright of a Stick Figure?

Plaintiff Gary Blehm is the creator of series of stick figures named “Penmen” (pictured on the left).  The defendants, Albert and John Jacobs, created their own series of stick figures named “Jake” (pictured on the right). Blehm developed the Penmen characters in the 1980’s and had several posters of the Penmen characters copyrighted.  Around 1994 defendant John Jacobs first drew Jake.  Initially Jake was just a head, but later a body was added to Jake […]