Microsoft is being sued for copyright infringement by Cellrderm, a gag gift company that makes novelty “cell phone abuse kits.” According to the lawsuit, Microsoft and its ad agency Crispin Porter, infringed on copyright creative content in a series of 2010 Windows Phone 7 ads.
The ads in question are the ones that feature a lingerie-clad woman competing with her husbands’s cell phone for attention, and a man who is talking on this phone while in the bathroom, only to drop his cell hone into a urinal and picking it back up again. Cellrderm claims that the Windows Phone 7 ads incorporated “substantial creative content” in the commercials such as “clothing, gestures, character appearance, camera angles, and other visual elements.”
From what is reported, Cellrderm produced two similar ads for YouTube back in 2009. Microsoft is said to have designed these ads to showcase how much we are addicted to our phones. Microsoft apparently developed the Windows Phone platform to “save you from your phone.”
Cellrderm issued a cease and desist letter to Microsoft and its ad agency back in January of 2011, but has yet to see any progress. Cellrderm is now seeking an injunction to prevent further distribution of the ads and prevent Microsoft from making any money from these damages.
Take a look for yourself. The first two ads are from Cellrderm and the second pair of ads are from Microsoft:
