Grumpy Cat: 5 Things About Cat That Won $710,000 Lawsuit Award

SANTA ANA, CA — There’s Grumpy Cat and the Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino. One is a cat, a real sourpuss, and the other is a beverage. The feline — rather, the internet sensation's company, Grumpy Cat Limited — prevailed in a recent copyright infringement lawsuit. The cat’s owner, Tabatha Bundesen, 29, was awarded $710,000.

An eight-member jury in Santa Ana, California, made the award in the cat spat late Monday after a weeklong trial. Grumpy Cat, who lives in Morristown, Arizona, even made a brief appearance in court.

Here are five things to know about Grumpy Cat:

What makes Grumpy Cat so grumpy? Tardar Sauce, the cat’s real name, has a form of dwarfism and an underbite that causes a perpetual frown, Business Insider reported in 2012.

How did Grumpy Cat become famous? Bunderson’s brother, Bryan Bunderson, snapped a photo in 2012 and posted it on Reddit. After that, Grumpy Cat memes were ubiquitous on social media, gaining 1 million views in 48 hours on Imgur, and a ton of news coverage. Bunderson earned a lot of money off the scowling cat’s endorsement deals and movies — but not the $100 million a British tabloid reported, she told The Huffington Post. Grumpy got endorsement deals, including one with Friskies, the cat food manufacturer, and “wrote” a handful of books: “Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book,” published in 2013; “The Grumpy Guide to Life: Observations from Grumpy Cat,” published in 2014; and “Grumpy Cat: No-It-All: Everything You Need to No,” published in 2015. Grumpy Cat also starred in a TV movie, “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever.”

What led to the lawsuit? In 2013, Bunderson entered into an agreement with father and son Nick and Paul Sandford, owners of Grenade Beverages, which makes Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino. Bunderson was paid $150,000 in upfront royalties, but the deal went as sour as the cat’s face after the Sandfords began using the cat’s likeness on products that went beyond the scope of the original agreement and Bunderson sued them, her lawyers say. The Sandfords countersued, seeking $12 million in damages, claiming it was Grumpy Cat Limited that didn’t follow through on plans to promote Grenade Beverages’ coffee line on social media and that Bryan Bunderson posted an online photo of an iced coffee bottle before it was ready to go to market, Court House News reported. But David Jonelis, an attorney for Grumpy Cat Limited, said during the trial his clients never agreed to give the Sandfords permission to produce a brand of Grumpy Cat ground coffee.

Will Grumpy Cat star in a movie with Will Ferrell and Jack Black? During the trial, much was made about a Grumpy Cat movie that would supposedly star the comedians, and the Sandfords said that was one of the aspects that enticed them to enter into a contract with Bunderson. The movie has yet to materialize. The Sandfords said during the trial that Grumpy Cat Limited deliberately misrepresented the movie to sweeten the contract talks. However, Jonelis claims it was the Sandfords who misrepresented the comedians’ involvement, asking if they were so vital to the movie why they weren’t mentioned in marketing plans “until after the fact.”

How does Starbucks fit in all of this? Grumpy Cat had such fame that the Sandfords thought its image could rival Starbucks’ mermaid logo. But Brian Kinder, their attorney, said during the trial that Grumpy Cat representatives failed to mention it on appearance on “Fox and Friends” and didn’t say, as scripted, “Watch out Starbucks. The cat’s coming for it.” Jonelis said marketing was the Sandfords’ bailiwick and they didn’t follow through with an appearance on the program.“They were the beverage people,” Jonelis said. “My client was just the cat people.”

You can find Grumpy Cat on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Lead image: Grumpy Cat owner Tabatha Bundesen is seen with Grumpy Cat as Friskies Party MixT celebrates Grumpy Cat's "Super Terrible Twos" birthday. (Brian Ach/AP Images for Friskies)