The maker of the party game What Do You Meme? is suing a toy maker for allegedly copying its popular line of plush emotional support chicken nuggets. The company, which is also called What Do You Meme is suing Liwei Song in a New York court for trademark and copyright infringement after he started selling his own emotional support chicken nuggets (pizza, too).
Why sue over stuffed chicken nuggets? It’s a huge business for What Do You Meme. The company’s line of emotional support products, which include dumplings, pickles, mushrooms, pizza, fries, strawberries, and more, has made “millions of dollars in sales,” according to the complaint, which was filed on Monday and reviewed by Aftermath. The emotional support chicken nuggets are the second top-selling plush toy on Amazon right now, having sold more than 5,000 sets this month alone. (The top-selling toy on Amazon currently is a plush recreation of Anxiety from Inside Out 2, signaling to me that we are not okay.) It’s beating out Disney-branded plushies, Squishmallows, and Jellycats on Amazon.
Is What Do You Meme the originator of the emotional support stuffed animal? Maybe the label, but certainly not the concept — Jellycats and Squishmallows have been increasingly popular. Jellycats, which also make plushies of personified food, had a sales increase of 41% from 2023 to 2024, according to Bloomberg. The company made $252 million in revenue between 2022 and 2023, Fortune reported in a story that tied its success to “Gen Z’s mental health crisis and need for comfort.” People clearly want cute things and comfort. What Do You Meme’s line of emotional support plushies draws the line straight between the two.
What Do You Meme has the copyright for the emotional support label. On Etsy and Amazon, there are plenty of different makers with “emotional support” plushies; on Etsy, crocheted versions are especially popular, but What Do You Meme is concerned with one maker in particular, seemingly due to how close they look visually.
What Do You Meme alleged in the complaint that Song intentionally copies its plushies and confuses potential buyers by using the emotional support label. What Do You Meme wrote that it submitted a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice in June, but that Song submitted a counter notice, which allows the products to go back up on Amazon. What Do You Meme is looking for $150,0000 per copyright infringement; it cites ”no less than four,” making that amount at least $600,000. It also wants the alleged copycats taken down.
It’s a pretty standard copyright and trademark infringement case, despite being about stuffed chicken nuggets. This isn’t the first stuffed trademark infringement case: Squishmallows owner Kelly Toys is suing Build-A-Bear over its Skoosherz line of products, which it says copies Squishmallows. The case is ongoing, but the argument from Kelly Toys is that Skookerz look too much like Squishmallows, while Build-A-Bear argues that you can’t trademark cute, round stuffed animals — it’s a concept that’s been done time and time again, the company argued. What Do You Meme’s case against Song is seemingly a bit more straightforward. The likeness is unmistakable. What’d be more complicated, perhaps, is if the company went after the pages and pages of crocheted emotional support foods, dumpsters, and animals on Etsy.
