The new Phanatic is an affront to Phillies fans everywhere, mascot makers say

When the new, birdlike Phillie Phanatic stepped out for his spring-training debut Sunday, the Phillies chalked up the mascot’s updated starry eyes and bigger, bluer bottom to “evolution.”

But the Phanatic’s original creators — embroiled in an increasingly bitter federal court battle with the team over the rights to baseball’s favorite mean, green, and slightly obscene pants-less mascot — are calling foul.

On Tuesday, Bonnie Erickson and Wayde Harrison issued a scathing statement, calling the “so-called ‘new’ Phanatic” an "afront [sic] to our intellectual property rights and Phillies fans everywhere.”

“For more than 40 years, we have worked closely with the Phillies, making all the Phanatic costumes, providing artwork and ideas until June of 2018,” said Erickson, who also created famed Muppets Miss Piggy and Statler and Waldorf. “The Phanatic has performed successfully for the Phillies and the city of Philadelphia for decades. The ‘business decision’ by the Phillies to roll out this ‘new’ Phanatic is a transparent attempt to deny us our rights under ... the Copyright Act. We would love to have the real Phanatic continue with the Phillies.”

» READ MORE: The Phillie Phanatic's copyright battle, explained

On Sunday, the team attributed the remix of the mascot’s rump, wings, eyes, socks, and shoes to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which, like the Phanatic, was developed in the Galápagos Islands.

“The species that survives is the one that adapts to change, and, Darwin was right, who knew?" Tom Burgoyne, the man behind the mascot’s megaphone mouth and “the Phanatic’s best friend of 32 years," previously said.

» PHOTOS: Phillie Phanatic through the years

The Phillies did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday.

Burgoyne said that the legal brouhaha “kind of kick-started” the Phanatic’s transformation but that the changes were more about seizing a “great opportunity to have some fun, be creative, and make a teaching moment for kids.”

» READ MORE: Sports cartoon: Will the Phillie Phanatic join the ranks of other discarded Philly mascots?

The Phillies sued Harrison and Erickson in August, claiming that the puppet-making pair were threatening to make the Phillie Phanatic a “free agent” and withdraw from a 1984 copyright agreement for $250,000 to allow the team to use the mascot “forever.”

Federal law stipulates that copyrights can be redrawn after 35 years. The Phillies’ agreement with Harrison and Erickson expires June 15.

The couple quickly filed a counterclaim against the team, alleging that the Phillies’ lawsuit was an attempt to “bully” them, and that “the Phillies are allergic to the real facts" over who created the gyrating green mascot.

» READ MORE: Phillies ‘allergic to the real facts’ over who created the Phanatic, mascot makers say

In legal filings, Harrison and Erickson have said that they alone made the Phanatic’s character and backstory when they were contracted to create the costume in 1978. Meanwhile, the Phillies argue that the baseball franchise is just as responsible for the success of the mascot as the puppet makers.

The subtle update to the Phanatic’s look gives the Phillies a “very compelling argument” in court, said Paul Kennedy, an intellectual-property attorney at Pepper Hamilton.

Even if the Phillies lose the copyright to the mascot in June, Kennedy said, under the Copyright Act, the team would still be entitled to its derivations of the work created before the agreement expires. That arguably includes the freshened Phanatic, Kennedy said.

“They got it in under the wire,” he said. “From the Phillies’ standpoint, I see that as trying to communicate that they accept that it is copyrighted in the current form, and are trying to freshen it up.”

Both lawsuits are in discovery, with a hearing scheduled for next week. Harrison and Erickson have deposed Phillies staff, paperwork from the Major League Baseball, and Dave Raymond, the original Phillie Phanatic.