Spongebob Lawsuit
In March 2007, the Contra Costa Times reported on a legal battle between Walker and Nickelodeon Studios regarding the origins of the popular SpongeBob SquarePants character. The lawsuit filed by Walker argued that the design and concept for SpongeBob was lifted from Walker's Bob Spongee character, which he produced and published, almost a decade before SpongeBob became a hit. Viacom, Nickelodeon's parent company, publicly stated that they believed the claim is baseless.
On January 4, 2008, a settlement conference was conducted between Troy Walker and Viacom, Paramount Studios and Nickelodeon Studios at the Northern District Federal Courts in San Francisco. No settlement was reached and the parties were ordered to return to court for another settlement conference set for May. A jury trial was set for June 2008. The matter was dropped before trial after a summary judgement in Viacom's favor.
One of Walker's claims involved the titles of Bob Spongee/SpongeBob stories. In 1992, Bob Spongee mail order advertisements were published in the Oakland Tribune under the slogan "Sponge for Hire." In 2004, Paramount Studios released a SpongeBob video with the same "Sponge for Hire" title. As part of the court hearing, the first episode of SpongeBob SquarePants entitled "Help Wanted" (airdate May 1, 1999) was entered as part of the evidence in Walker vs. Viacom.
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