Cease and desist: it’s the message from lawyers on both sides of an angry controversy that’s subsumed the happy, dancing shark meme born of Katy Perry’s Super Bowl XLIX halftime performance.

The disagreement was sparked when a Florida-based 3D printing and figurine design company turned the shimmying blue sea creatures – made immortal by a performance in which one of Perry’s two accompanying dancing sharks appeared to lose track of his dance moves – into a 2.7in figurine.



Perry’s lawyers were not pleased.

“As you are undoubtedly aware, our client never consented to your use of its copyrighted [intellectual property], nor did our client consent to the sale of the infringing product,” wrote Los Angeles-based attorneys Greenberg Traurig, in a cease-and-desist letter sent to Fernando Sosa, operator of the website PoliticalSculptor and business Shapeways.

Typically, Shapeways spends time creating 3D printing files and novelty figurines of (as a sampling) New Jersey governor Chris Christie wearing a traffic cone as a hat and Breaking Bad’s Walter White-as-Buddha sculptures.

The Greenberg Traurig letter sent on 2 February said Shapeways infringed on Perry’s “exclusive rights in numerous ways.”. The attorneys demanded that Sosa stop selling the figurines, turn over any that were already created, and “provide a complete accounting for all of the revenue you have received” from the sharks.

But Sosa didn’t. Instead, he hired an attorney, and made the sharks available in more varieties, including one in pink and one carrying a beer.

“Usually, when it comes to small business owners, when the lawyers come after you the outcome is pretty predictable,” Sosa said in a blog post on the subject. “Lawyer sends you a threatening letter and in fear of legal action you do whatever the lawyer tells you to do.”

“As of Friday, I have retained the legal representation of Christopher Jon Springman Professor at New York University School of Law and we have decided to fight back these bullying corporate lawyers,” Sosa wrote.

In his response, Springman argues that not only can costumes not be copyrighted, but that it’s unclear Perry owns the copyright at all.

“Just drop this thing,” writes Springman. “My client wants to get back to his business and he (and I’d wager pretty much everyone else) would be grateful if you’d just back off. Going ahead with these dubious copyright claims will not benefit Katy Perry.”