Disney Settles Lawsuit With The Portland Pickles Over “Win Or Lose” Disney+ Series

Earlier this year, Pixar released its first-ever original series on Disney+ called “Win Or Lose, which follows intertwined stories of eight different characters, who are members of the Pickeles softball team, as they each prepare for their big championship game. The series reveals what it actually feels like to be in the shoes of each character—the insecure kids, their helicopter parents, even a lovesick umpire—with incredibly funny, very emotional and uniquely animated perspectives.   

However, shortly after the series was released on Disney+, the real-life Portland Pickles baseball team sued Disney for using its logo and branding without consent.    The team’s mascot, Dillon T. Pickle, resembles the logo from the animated series, a smiling pickle.

To go along with the release of the Disney+ show, there was plenty of tie-in merchandise released that featured logos and themes that are “substantially and confusingly similar to plaintiff’s Pickles marks”.  These merchandise items were sold online at ShopDisney and at major big-box retailers like Walmart and Target. 

“Disney’s conduct threatens to overshadow years of grassroots growth, community engagement, creative expression, and national expansion,” and added that it “sets a dangerous precedent that no matter how successful a small brand becomes, it is vulnerable to appropriation by the world’s largest media companies.”

The lawsuit has now been settled, and a settlement will be made within the next thirty days.  As you might expect, no settlement details, such as how much was paid, have been revealed.

Roger’s Take:  It’s hard to know if this was a genuine mistake by someone at Disney while creating the show, or if someone was “inspired” by the real club.  Either way, it’s not a good look for Disney and settling the lawsuit is probably the smartest thing to do, just to bury the problem and to move on.  It’s interesting that when trying to find some of the “Pickles” Win Or Lose themed merchandise on different retailers, nothing seems to be for sale, which could be a coincidence, but it’s likely this merchandise might have been pulled. 

“Win Or Lose” is available to stream on Disney+.

What do you think of this lawsuit?  Let me know on social media!