Lady in the Banana Peal Suit Slips Up in Court

It's not so ap-pealing: Catherine Conrad, aka the “Banana Lady”, has slipped up after filing several lawsuits for copyright infringement. Kim Janssen, who's a Federal Courts Reporter for the Sun-Times, says after Conrad has performed with her puppet monkey and has done “The Banana Shake” for various groups, she's sued because people have used her image or have posted videos of her online.

However, her latest litigious effort has failed at the U.S.“Appeals Court. She sued several credit unions after people posted videos of her on Facebook. The judge said she doesn't own the copyright of her banana costume because it's “a common consumer product” and said her lawsuit is an “abuse of the legal process”.

Not only are her legal actions obviously frivolous, but she doesn't seem to understand publicity, either. Hopefully the judge's decision will prevent other lawsuits, and hopefully she'll learn some publicity lessons because she's missed a basic concept. It's helpful when people organically share what someone is doing because it can result in more positive exposure for the person. However, by not letting people share her image and videos, Conrad is cutting off a natural marketing plan, and she's only getting negative publicity for all the lawsuits she's filed.

By the way, what's interesting about this case is that her attorney's name wasn't in the story, probably because he or she doesn't want to slip on the Banana Lady's rotten peel.