'Big Bang Theory' draws lullaby lawsuit

A rendition of the “Soft Kitty” lullaby usually makes everything better on CBS' “The Big Bang Theory,” but now the comedy is being sued for copyright infringement.

The lullaby was first featured on the show in 2008 and has been sung several times since — at least once as a round by Sheldon and Penny, played by Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco, respectively.

But in a lawsuit filed against Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and others last month in a New York federal court, Margaret Chase Perry and Ellen Newlin Chase allege that the CBS sitcom used their mother's lyrics without buying the rights.

They said their mother, late-poet Edith Newlin, wrote the original poem, “Warm Kitty,” which was published in a 1937 book of nursery school songs.

The “Soft Kitty” lyrics — Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr — which are slightly different from Ms. Newlin’s poem, have become “a signature and emblematic feature” of “The Big Bang Theory,” used to promote the show through advertising, on T-shirts and more, the lawsuit states.