‘Kung Fu Panda’ copyright suit ends with two-year prison term

Jayme Gordon, an amateur cartoonist, has been sentenced to two years in prison for wire fraud and perjury in a case that began as a copyright dispute over the “Kung Fu Panda” film.

Gordon was found guilty of seven counts of wire fraud and perjury at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts in November last year.
On May 3, he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and fined $3 million in damages.

“Kung Fu Panda” was released in 2008 and centres on a panda who dreams of being a kung fu master.

Gordon originally filed a copyright infringement suit at the Massachusetts court in 2011, alleging that the characters and story of “Kung Fu Panda” were based on drawings and story ideas he had submitted to DreamWorks Animation.

From 1989 to 2000, Gordon sent his proposals to DreamWorks, who rejected his proposals, he said. Between 1999 and 2000, Gordon registered drawings called “Jamie Gordon’s Panda Power” at the US Copyright Office.

In his copyright suit with DreamWorks, Gordon later asked the production company to settle by paying him $12 million.

During the course of litigation, DreamWorks spent $3 million in legal fees.

According to a government indictment, Gordon knowingly made a false declaration during his civil deposition to DreamWorks counsel in December 2011.

He also deleted evidence on his computer that he was required to produce during litigation and “fabricated and backdated drawings of characters similar to those in ‘Kung Fu Panda’”.

This led to the government's indictment in 2015.

Two years earlier, in 2013, Gordon had agreed to dismiss the copyright infringement suit against DreamWorks after two and a half years of litigation.

Chief Judge Patti Saris of the Massachusetts court handed down Gordon’s sentence.