Olorunfemi Coker, also known as @iamFemiFactor on Twitter, is suing FuckJerry, Jerry Media, and their founder Elliot Tebele for copyright infringement, alleging the massively popular @FuckJerry account stole one of his original memes.



Coker alleges Tebele and his media entities FuckJerry and Jerry Media knowingly stole and used his tweet in a promotional post for Tebele's own tequila company JAJA.



In a statement to BuzzFeed News, a spokesperson for FuckJerry said the lawsuit is "frivolous" and "we intend to defend it vigorously."



The complaint, filed in New York's Southern District Court on Tuesday, describes the plaintiff as a "content creator," who "has a substantial following on the social media platforms, including more than 145,000 followers on Twitter and over 60,000 followers on Instagram."



The lawsuit includes Coker's screenshotted iMessage on his Twitter account on Jan. 23 against an identical screenshot featured on @FuckJerry's Instagram page, showing the defendant "published and exploited it without the authorization of [Coker]."

@FuckJerry's repost of Coker's meme was instead captioned, "Me after my 6th glass of @JAJA," tagging the alcohol company.

Coker is seeking $150,000 in monetary damages.



Fuck Jerry and Jerry Media have been the target of ongoing backlash for copy-and-pasting other peoples' jokes without obtaining permission or giving credit. Tebele attempted to address the criticisms in February when he published a lengthy statement on Medium vowing to "properly credit creators for their work."



BuzzFeed News has reached out to Coker and his attorney for comment.