‘Most important’ banana suit spurs lawsuit

The ever-popular, rarely serious bumblebee yellow banana costume became a point of contention in court this week.

Silvertop Associates, a costume manufacturer that does business as Rasta Imposta, filed a lawsuit in a New Jersey federal court on Wednesday against Kmart Corp. and Sears, alleging copyright infringement, trade dress infringement and unfair competition, the Chicago Tribune reported on Thursday.

Rasta Imposta has sold the costume in Kmart stores since 2008 and this year Kmart said it would use "another (banana costume) vendor,” according to the complaint, accessed by the Tribune.

"Shortly thereafter, Rasta Imposta discovered that Kmart had begun offering … a direct replication and knockoff of Rasta Imposta's copyrighted Banana Design," the complaint states. "Kmart is not free to simply appropriate Rasta Imposta's intellectual property for its own business advantage without Rasta Imposta's consent."

Rasta Imposta first began selling the banana costume in 2001 and gained a copyright registration in 2010, the Tribune reported.  The company licenses out the design and considers the banana "one of the company's most important costumes,” the complaint states.