Have the words “Skidibi Toilet” ever been uttered in court? That’s unlikely — and changing soon. Invisible Narratives, the entertainment company making a Skibidi Toilet movie and TV series with Michael Bay, filed a lawsuit in California on Friday alleging that a company of “professional scam artists and extortionists” is trying to “steal” the Skibidi Toilet intellectual property. Not only has the implicated company published Skibidi Toilet, a game based off the original YouTube web series by Alexey Gerasimov, but it’s also obtained Skibidi Toilet registrations from the United States Copyright Office and has pending applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, lawyers wrote in the complaint, which Polygon has obtained and reviewed.
The Skibidi Toilet web series is created by Gerasimov, known as Boom online, but Invisible Narratives “struck a deal [with Gerasimov] to build out the business through licensing and partnerships,” per a Washington Post interview published in July 2024. That includes the upcoming TV series and movie, as well as integrations into Minecraft and Fortnite. Gerasimov uses Valve’s Source Filmmaker and physics sandbox Garry’s Mod to make the web series, which debuted in 2023.
Next Level, the implicated company, owns the Skidibi Toilet domain name and copyright registrations for 17 characters based off the Skibidi Toilet web series. Three others are not actually in Skibidi Toilet, but “Next Level has represented [them] as being characters from the Skibidi Toilet series,” according to the complaint. It has at least 12 applications with the USPTO using the Skibidi Toilet name and imagery. (Polygon has confirmed these registrations and applications; several others have made claims using the name, too.) Invisible Narratives has attempted to stop the infringement outside of court, like using Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices; this worked for the game, which is no longer available on mobile app stores, but Next Level is trying to fight this, citing its trademark and copyright protections.
Next Level owner Sergey Osadchy, for his part, claims to have created a game called Skibidi Toilet in 2020 — before the web series, suggesting the series is a copy. Here’s his statement, via the Skibidi Toilet website:
When I realized that the internet was full of materials based on my work, I initiated the process of registering my brand. The registration was successful in the EU, and now my brand is undergoing registration in other countries. I discovered numerous similar materials on YouTube and in apps on iOS and Android platforms. I decided not to file complaints against YouTube channels, as they were promoting my brand, but I began filing complaints against apps on behalf of my company to protect the brand’s reputation before the game’s release. I also encountered attempts by third parties to register intellectual property rights to my brand. I am currently filing objections to all such applications in all jurisdictions. I have registered copyrights for more than 20 characters from my game universe with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Per the lawsuit, Next Level “escalated its fraudulent scheme” by sending a DMCA takedown notice to YouTube, alleging that a Skibidi Toilet video comprising of all of the episodes for season 25 violated its copyright. YouTube removed the official Skibidi Toilet video on Jan. 24 and has yet to reinstate it. On Jan. 27, according to the lawsuit, a representative from Next Level emailed Invisible Narratives to negotiate: “In view of the above, we suggest that you enter into a dialog with us and resolve all contentious issues through negotiations, which will save time and budget. We expect your response by January 31, 2025, and then we will use all legal tools to protect our brand,” Next Level wrote. On Feb. 5, Next Level sent another email threatening a takedown notice.
“But Next Level continuously and willfully spreads its false narrative that it created and owns Skibidi Toilet-related copyrights, and is using its knowledge of YouTube’s DMCA Takedown Notice policy, including its ‘multiple strikes’ policy, to hold legitimate Skibidi Toilet content hostage—unless Invisible Narratives pays Next Level a hefty ransom,” lawyers wrote.
More DMCA takedowns could put the Skibidi Toilet YouTube account at risk, according to the lawsuit; YouTube may suspend it.
Skibidi Toilet lawyers allege, too, that Next Level has done this before: It’s currently being sued by Melon Sandbox developer Ducky for “fraudulently registering copyrights and submitted DMCA Takedown Notices on platforms like Google play, Apple App Store, and YouTube.” The lawsuit hasn’t been resolved, but Next Level didn’t respond to the suit and a default judgment is pending. Invisible Narratives wants the court to say it owns the Skibidi Toilet copyrights and trademarks — and clarify that Next Level doesn’t. It wants Next Level to pay $150,000 for each infringement of copyright, $100,000 for damages related to “cyberpiracy,” and more damages for “common law trademark infringement and unfair competition.”
Ironically, Invisible Narratives executive and producer Adam Goodman told Variety it was taking a laid-back approach to the Skibidi Toilet property: “We want creators to play with our IP,” Goodman said. “We want to make sure that people are doing things, obviously within reason, so long as it kind of follows a certain guideline for us.” For instance, there’s a bunch of games on Roblox — Skibidi Toilet Tycoon has 84.6 million lifetime visits — that use the Skibidi Toilet IP. Next Level’s approach, clearly, is not within reason, likely due to the domain squatting, the game, and the copyright and trademark threats combined.
Last year, Invisible Narratives actually sent a DMCA takedown notice to Garry’s Mod creator Garry Newman in a bizarre twist on copyright law. Skibidi Toilet is created using Garry’s Mod and other Valve assets in the free Source Filmmaker; the assets themselves, unchanged, are not copyrighted by Gerasimov nor Invisible Narratives. It’s the characters and names that are copyrighted. IGN reported in July 2024 that Newman got a DMCA takedown citing Garry’s Mod mods that use Skibidi Toilet characters; it wanted them taken down. Newman told IGN that the situation had been resolved, seemingly implying the takedown notice was an error.
As for this lawsuit, Next Level has 21 days to respond. Polygon has reached out to Gerasimov, Invisible Narratives, and Next Level for comment and has not yet received a response.
