Seth MacFarlane, Universal Studios and his production company Fuzzy Door Productions are being sued for copyright infringement over the foul-mouthed teddy bear character named Ted who stars in his film of the same name. MacFarlane directed, co-wrote, produced and starred in the film.
A production company based out of California, Bengal Mangle Productions, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday that claimed Ted was stolen from their Charlie character featured in their screenplay of Acting School Academy from 2008. The character went on to star in a web series that was featured on outlets like iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, FunnyOrDie.com and Vimeo.com.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit states Charlie lives in a "human, adult world with all human friends,” who “has a penchant for drinking, smoking, prostitutes, and is a generally vulgar yet humorous character” just like Ted, who "is strikingly similar to plaintiffs' Charlie character."
Ted was the highest-grossing comedy of 2012, starring Seth MacFarlane as the voice of Ted as well as Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. As we previously reported, Universal is planning a sequel, which will star both Wahlberg and MacFarlane returning and coming to theaters in 2015.
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