Saturday, June 21, 2025

The Cat Fight Over “Eticat”

       

CAT FIGHT: Jere Hathaway Wright holds puppets Eticat, left, and Mt. Jewl, after testifying in court Wednesday in Fairfax, Va. – January 1998
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 The judge ultimately ruled against Johnson in the lawsuit: 
Today's etiquette lesson: Sharing with a friend is a nice idea, but better get a trademark first. A Fairfax County judge ruled yesterday that an area woman who created a purple sock puppet named Eticat to teach manners to children cannot successfully sue a former friend who borrowed the idea.– Washington Post, February, 1998


Etiquette Mavens Doff Gloves for Cat Puppet 


FAIRFAX, Va.– The white gloves have come off as two Washington-area manners mavens fight each other in a most uncivil lawsuit over the rights to Eticat, a feline puppet used to teach children etiquette. Dorothea Johnson accuses a former employee, Jere Hathaway Wright, of swiping the puppet idea and starting a competing operation schooling children in the finer points of polite society. 

“All I can say is I believe I was there first,” Wright said in a huff as she clutched the purple-and-black puppet outside a Fairfax County courtroom Wednesday. Johnson is seeking to bar Wright from using the Eticat name. She also wants up to $10,000 in damages. 

A judge who heard two days of testimony is expected to rule in February. “She was a friend, and I feel betrayed,” Johnson said. Wright was broke and looking for work five years ago when Johnson hired her as a consultant for The Protocol School of Washington, Johnson said. “Never did I suspect that she would take my materials and use them in the way that she did,” Johnson testified. 

Johnson, with 40 years of experience, is perhaps the best known of the etiquette tutors who abound in society conscious Washington, where the social graces can help one avoid an international incident. Johnson also works as a consultant to the American diplomatic corps. She claims she was working on an idea to use a cat puppet in her childrens etiquette classes when Wright came on board in 1993. The project was called Eticat and was outlined in confidential documents. 

Although her lawyer calls it theft, Johnson puts her allegation more politely: “Miss Wright misappropriated my idea. The unpleasantness began early on,” Johnson said, when she overheard Wright make some rather indecorous remarks about Johnson’s table manners.– The Associated Press, 1998



🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

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