RIP Philly Phantic??

For those of you, like me, who have suffered some sleepless nights over the death of the Philly Phanatic, here is my somewhat-professional-total-guess-yet-quite-possible analysis of what’s happened, happening and going to happen (SPOILER ALERT:  IT ENDS WELL).

First, some retrospective:  The Phanatic was created by two people (one of whom is renowned for creating the Muppet “Miss Piggy” in the 70’s).  These two people properly registered the Copyright for this bipedal non-flying being, and in fact still own the copyright.  They did, however, license the use of the Phanatic to the Phillies.  But, again, they still own the copyright. 

Under Federal Law, the owner of a copyright has the right to renegotiate the value of the copyright after 35 years.  It is my understanding that the two owners of the copyright notified the Phillies a few years ago that they did not want to extend the licensing agreement and wanted the exclusive use of their copyright back, as federal law permits them to do (they did this just to strengthen their negotiating position for the Phanatic’s value; this law is in place in recognition that the value of a copyrighted work can sometimes increase exponentially (just as has happened here), and that requiring the copyright owner to be bound by the original licensing agreement would be unfair an unjust).  The Phillies responded by filing suit in federal court against the copyright owners, claiming that the increase in the Phanatic’s value was based upon their animation of the Phanatic, i.e., bringing him to life through the humans inside, as well as their marketing of the Phanatic.  My guess is that this argument has been unavailing thus far in Court. 

This brings us to now.  With the licensing agreement officially expiring in June of this year, the Phillies are trying to thread a very, very narrow needle by (1) changing the Phanatic so that they are not in violation of federal copyright law, but (2) not changing him so much that the Phillies fans are shocked, disgusted and don’t even recognize him anymore.  Today’ reveal, 3+ months out from the expiration of the licensing agreement, is a trial balloon to see how the fans and the original creators react.  And for the reasons explained below, I predict today’s trial balloon will fail miserably. 

You can’t pacify both the original creators and the fans at the time time.  Either the Phanatic remains substantially similar to what it has been for decades (a description that law would describe as “Confusingly Similar”, which would be a violation of the copyright), or the Phanatic will look so completely different that no reasonable person could confuse this Phanatic with the old Phanatic (in which case the Phillies fans will revolt).

The result:  the current “experiment” with altering the Phanatic will fail – by pissing off the creators, or the fans, or quite possibly both -- the Phillies will be forced to renegotiate their agreement with the original creators, the  Phils will ultimately pay the creators many millions of dollars (if you feel bad about this, consider how may millions the Phillies are still paying Odubel Herrera), and the Phanatic will return to the large, green, fuzzy, silly, loveable creature we’ve all fallen in love with. 

Because he’s worth it.