IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT—9th Cir.: District court’s judgment affirmed in YouTube cartoon copyright infringement case, (Nov 10, 2025)

By Carolin Dennis, B.Sc., LL.B., LL.M.

The district court did not abuse its discretion with jury instructions and verdict form.

In an unpublished opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment in favor of the owner of a top-ranked YouTube channel that features animated characters designed to appeal to children on the copyrightability of the JJ character because JJ is an especially distinctive character. The appellate court also held that the district court properly instructed the jury and did not abuse its discretion in formulating the verdict form (Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. v. Babybus Co., Ltd., No. 24-3748 (9th Cir. Nov. 6, 2025)).

Background. Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. and Treasure Studio, Inc. (together, Moonbug) operate the CoComelon channel, a top-ranked Kids YouTube channel that features animated videos of a child character named JJ and his family. BabyBus Co., Ltd. and BabyBus (Fujian) Network Technology Co., Ltd. (together, BabyBus) run a competing YouTube channel with videos featuring a character named Super JoJo and his family. Moonbug, believing that a number of its competitors’ videos infringed on its copyright music, filed take-down notices with YouTube and sued Babybus for infringement. Babybus, in turn, asserted affirmative defenses of fair use and copyright misuse, and also alleged that Moonbug made knowing misrepresentations in its takedown notices to YouTube in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

On July 27, 2023, a jury found that BabyBus infringed Moonbug’s registered copyrights to CoComelon’s JJ character, family, and animal characters for 36 out of 39 works at issue. Further, the jury found BabyBus liable for copyright infringement and misrepresentation under § 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). BabyBus appealed the district court’s final judgment for Moonbug after a jury trial, challenging the district court’s jury instructions and verdict form. BabyBus also challenged the district court’s decision granting partial summary judgment to Moonbug on the copyrightability of the JJ character.

District court’s jury instructions. The Ninth Circuit noted that in this case the district court’s jury instructions adequately distinguished between protected and unprotected elements of the CoComelon works by listing the kinds of components that are not entitled to copyright protection. The Ninth Circuit has never required district courts to identify for the jury specific, unprotected elements in the allegedly infringed work. However, the district court did not err by listing categories of protected and unprotected material and then tasking the jury with determining which case-specific elements corresponded to those categories based on testimony elicited at trial.

The Ninth Circuit found that the district court’s instructions on scenes a faire gave adequate guidance and tracked existing case law. Likewise, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it forwent a merger instruction based on insufficient evidence. The district court determined that the instruction would be redundant with other instructions explaining which elements are unprotected. Even if Babybus was correct that the merger doctrine must apply because there are a limited number of ways to express the idea of a“cartoon baby in a happy family brushing their teeth, any such error would have been harmless. The Ninth Circuit also found that the district court did not err by finding thick protection and applying the substantial similarity standard. Even if some visual elements are inherent in the genre of animated babies, there is still a wide range of possible creative expression. Further, the jury found that JoJo was not only substantially similar but also virtually identical to JJ. So even if the district court had erred in finding broad protection, the error would have been harmless. Thus, there was no error in the district court’s guidance on scenes a faire, merger, and thick/thin protection.

The Ninth Circuit found that there was no error in the district court’s selection and arrangement instruction. Even if we assumed Babybus was correct that filtering is always required in cases such as this one, the district court’s instructions provided adequate filtering guidance by distinguishing between the kinds of elements that are typically protected versus those that are not. Additionally, contrary to Babybus’ assertions, Moonbug presented sufficient evidence on how individual unprotected elements were “particularly selected and arranged” to warrant the instruction. Therefore, the district court properly instructed the jury.

Partial summary judgment on copyrightability of JJ. The Ninth Circuit noted that JJ has several unique characteristics like his signature “Wow!” gesture, his clothing, physical features, character traits, and unique popularity that when viewed in combination, render him especially distinctive. Thus, there is no genuine dispute of material fact that JJ is an especially distinctive character. Accordingly, the district court properly granted partial summary judgment to Moonbug on the copyrightability of the JJ character.

Verdict form. The Ninth Circuit noted that the district court acted within its discretion in crafting a verdict form that avoided the need for individual findings on each of the 368 Super JoJo videos accused of infringing the CoComelon copyrights. From the verdict form, the jury found that each Super JoJo video willfully infringed at least one of Moonbug’s registered copyrights because JoJo is “virtually identical” to JJ, and each of BabyBus’ 368 Super JoJo videos focuses on JoJo as the main character. Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion in formulating the verdict form.

Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision.

The Case is No. 24-3748.

Judge: Bumatay, P.

Attorneys: John Sprangers (Horvitz & Levy, LLP) for Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. Margret Mary Caruso (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP) for BabyBus Co., Ltd.

Companies: Moonbug Entertainment Ltd.; BabyBus Co., Ltd.

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