Use of Mr. Yuk leaves bad taste in Eagan

The poison awareness symbol has landed in the middle of the latest spat over a proposed charter in Eagan.

By Sarah Lemagie, Star Tribune

Last update: October 10, 2007 - 9:09 PM

The signs popped up on Eagan streets this week. "No Charter," they say, the words printed under a familiar green face with angry, squinted eyes and a protruding tongue.

Most kids could tell you exactly who Mr. Yuk is, even if they don't know his name. For decades, parents have warned their children away from dangerous household substances with stickers that bear his disgusted face and a phone number that connects callers with the nearest poison center.

But in this case, Mr. Yuk is sticking his tongue out at the proposed charter that Eagan residents will vote on Nov. 6.

That's a problem for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which controls the copyrighted trademark symbol.

"The whole idea about Mr. Yuk is that Mr. Yuk is a poison center awareness tool," said Edward Krenzelok, director of the Pittsburgh Poison Center.

Debate over the charter, which would change Eagan's form of government, has been dry, but the issue has inspired passionate campaigning from a small numbers of residents on both sides. In 2004, 80 percent of voters nixed a charter proposed by the Eagan Charter Commission, which also drafted the current proposal.

Betty Fedde, a commission member and charter supporter, e-mailed pictures of the Eagan signs to the center. From that email, Krenzelok said he sees a clear copyright infringement, and he forwarded the matter to the Medical Center's legal counsel. He said the attorneys would likely insist that the sign's creator to take them down.

The center often gives people permission to use Mr. Yuk for poison prevention, but never for charter prevention. The use is "totally inappropriate," Krenzelok said.

Charter opponent Paul Bakken, an Eagan City Council member, said he printed the signs and posted about 30 of them. He also used the image on a website opposing the charter, noting on the site that it is the intellectual property of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, which is owned by the university Medical Center.

Bakken said he is not even sure the graphic, which he found on the Internet, is identical to the trademarked Mr. Yuk, but that he attributed it to err on the side of safety. Even if it is, he argued that copyright law makes some exceptions for noncommercial use of images for political satire. "I researched this very carefully," he said. "It falls well within the fair use doctrine, but I fully expected that somebody from the Charter Commission would try to stir up trouble and cast a shadow on it, because frankly, that's all they've got left."

Sarah Lemagie • 612-673-7557

Sarah Lemagie • slemagie@startribune.com

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