Barney Doesn’t Love Unlicensed Costumes

Barney’s creators are hoping to make unlicensed costumes styled after the children’s figure extinct. Lyons Partnership, the Texas company that licenses an estimated $500 million in trademark Barney gear, has filed federal lawsuits against a handful of costume stores and children’s entertainers who are making money from unlicensed costumes. Lyons, like the Walt Disney Co., doesn’t license adult costumes. “The negative effects on children of cursing, removing the costume head, smoking, drinking and other unseemly conduct by unauthorized performers are unacceptable,” the company said in a complaint filed this month in U.S. District Court in Virginia. The suit seeks $100,000 from parties alleged to have misused the trademark. The legal action also comes as the franchise prepares for next week’s release of the first-ever Barney feature film.