The Lapland New Forest park was accused by 1739-year-old Mr Claus, of the North Pole, of copyright infringement of his homeland. However, the judge ruled against Claus, saying that whilst the park had tried to copy his creation, they had failed pretty miserably.
Claus now has nothing to do for 9 months
In the ruling, judge Justice McCourt pointed to several examples, including Lapland New Forest's miserable elves, which he ruled did not infringe on the Happy Elf trademark held by the North Pole resident. McCourt also noted that the real Lapland had snow, and that the mudbath set up by the defendant was not sufficiently similar.
Speaking outside of court, Mr Claus said he was unhappy, but respected the ruling: "Obviously, I am disappointed to have lost. However, I can see how the judge came to the conclusion he did, what with my home being a magical winter wonderland, and the other being a couple of Christmas trees standing in pony crap."
A spokesman for Lapland New Forest said in a statement: "We had no intention of ever copying the real Lapland, and we are happy that the court agrees with us in this way. We are also pleased to announce that we are expanding with the opening of Narnia New Forest. Of course, this will not infringe of C.S. Lewis' intellectual property - we have once again substituted horse manure for snow, and we will not be including a wicked witch, we instead have a crazy bag lady we found at New Milton station."
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