page_title: Beanie Babies
section_title: Counterfeit Beanie Babies
hierarchical_section_title: Beanie Babies / Counterfeit Beanie Babies
caption_attribution_description: English: Appendix image 1 (4.57" X 7.04") Ty, Inc. v. GMA Accessories, Inc., 132 F.3d 1167, 1174. Photograph submitted to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on first page of the appendix. Part of the public record, and therefore public domain. Photograph depicts Ty's Beanie Baby: "Squealer" (Top) and GMA's stuffed animal: "Preston the Pig" (Bottom). These were compared to photographs of actual pigs by judge Posner (appendix image 2, page 1175)
context_page_description: Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. Notably, the toys are stuffed with plastic pellets rather than conventional soft stuffing, giving Beanie Babies a flexible feel. The toys come in many different forms, mostly animals. In an interview, Warner said, "The whole idea was it looked real because it moved."
  Although created in 1993, during the last half of the 1990s, Beanie Babies emerged as a major fad and collectable. They have been cited as being the world's first Internet sensation in 1995. They were collected not only as toys, but also as a financial investment, due to the high resale value of particular ones.
context_section_description: Counterfeit Beanie Babies began to surface in 1997. Early on, cheap knock-offs and fakes of common Beanies were widely available at discount prices.
caption: Ty copyright infringement. Photograph submitted to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on first page of the appendix depicting Ty's Beanie Baby: "Squealer" (top) and GMA's stuffed animal: "Preston the Pig" (bottom)
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