By Ross E. Cheit 1991 Ross E. Cheit. All rights reserved. Mickey Mouse has a busy lawyer. So does Kermit the Frog and the Pillsbury Doughboy. That these icons of American business are involved in litigation is not surprising.
Businesses often complain that they are besieged by lawsuits.
But business isn't always the defendant. Pillsbury sued, claiming the pudgy character looked too much like the Doughboy. These are examples of an obscure and, at times, unseemly breed of lawsuit. These overlooked cases, brought by and against businesses, account for an increasing proportion of the civil docket. The Mayo Clinic did.