September 15, 2012

(JTA) — Marvel Comics is suing a Jerusalem shop for selling unlicensed Spider-Man merchandise.

Avi Binyamin, who owns the Kippa Man store on Jerusalem’s Ben-Yehuda Street, is being sued for nearly $25,700 for selling kipot with Spider-Man’s likeness, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“A reasonable consumer could be fooled into thinking that the infringing product is manufactured and/or sold by the plaintiff with the knowledge and/or approval of the defendant,” the court document states, according to the Post.

Binyamin received the documents on Sept. 12.

“They make them in China, I just bring them,” Binyamin told the paper.

“There are 20 stores on this street, they all sell the same thing,” he added.

“This is one of many similar cases… If they find illegal merchandise, they will tell us and we will sue them,” Amir Ivtsan, a partner in the Ivtsan, Netzer, Wolecki & Co. law firm that has represented Marvel in Israel for the past decade, was quoted as saying.

Numerous shops along Ben-Yehuda sell merchandise featuring Spidey as well as such characters as Superman and college mascots.

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