Paul “Bear” Vasquez and runningshoes.com have kissed and made up over last Thursday’s intellectual property scuffle, which started when RunningShoes used Bear’s face and voice from the famous “Double Rainbow” video in an ad.
Runningshoes.com has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money to Vasquez in exchange for using Vasquez’s likeness in its promotion of the New Balance 890 Rainbow shoe without the cosmic cowboy’s permission.
In exchange, runningshoes.com has been granted the permission to use sound bites and imagery from Vasquez’s tremendously popular “Yosemite Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10” video. The online retail store site has also added a small hat tip towards Vasquez that says “Wanna see a real double rainbow? Watch the video that served as our inspiration.”
Details regarding the settlement were broadcast on Vasquez’s Hungrybear9562 YouTube channel in a video titled “New Balance Agreement.”
“I didn’t charge them for making a mistake,” Vasquez said after speaking on the telephone with runningshoes.com CEO Chad Weinman. “I charged them like if they had come to me and said ‘What do you want to do this? What would be a fee to use your likeness to help us promote this?’
“I think I was very generous and very forgiving. I understand that they just made a little mistake and that they’re sorry. I have no desire or will to hurt them or punish them or make them pay. Everyone makes mistakes, and I can understand that.”
Vasquez also took the opportunity to use this agreement as fodder for his ongoing case against The Walt Disney Company, which allegedly used his intellectual property without his permission but failed to offer any type of compensation or credit.
“I think the whole reason this happened is because I’m going to need these skills in the future,” he said. “So take that, Disney. Disney didn’t use my voice or my likeness. They used my meme.
“I wasn’t trying to make any money off Disney. I just wanted tickets for me and my kids on YouTube Day and you couldn’t do that? That’s awful. You clearly don’t have a soul. Get one.”
So we know that Vasquez really has it in for the folks at Walt Disney. Here are a few other things we know:
- Vasquez cannot be bothered to wear a shirt when speaking on the phone with company CEOs.
- Vasquez accepts PayPal.
- Vasquez is currently nursing a broken ankle.
- All of Vasquez’s vehicles are old.
- Vasquez has something called a “Hammock Cam.”
Bear Vasquez is an American treasure who’s given people an extreme wealth of joy over the years, and we’re glad to see runningshoes.com pay the man his proper due. Cue the celebration jams.
Photo via YouTube