FOXSYLVANIA

– – You’ve probably seen Kit-Cat Klocks,which have been made continuously by the California Clock Company in Oregon for over 70 years.  The iconic art deco style wall clock is traditionally in the shape of a grinning black cat with cartoon-styled eyes that move horizontally in sync with a pendulum tail that swings beneath.  From the 1930’s through the 1950’s the clocks had only two paws, features which expanded to four paws and a bow tie in more recent years.  The clocks were also originally plug-in, while models sold since the late 1980’s use batteries and are also available in multiple colors, some for a limited time only. 

Now Felix the Cat‘s production company has sued Kit-Cat Klocks in federal court in 2004 for copyright infringement, claiming that Kit-Cat was a blatant knockoff of Felix, who first appeared in the 1920’s.  Apparently even Felix couldn’t pull the copyright infringement case out of his bag of tricks…