Bill Nye sues websites accused of selling counterfeits

Bill Nye Productions – the company behind US mechanical engineer and TV celebrity Bill Nye the Science Guy – has taken action against multiple websites claiming trademark infringement.

The complaint is seeking a temporary restraining order against the websites, which are accused of importing and selling counterfeit and unauthorised Bill Nye merchandise that infringe trademarks including ‘Bill Nye’ and ‘The Science Guy’.

The sites are selling counterfeit items such as books, T-shirts, toys, sweatshirts and other clothing items – including Nye’s iconic bow ties - that are falsely represented as being official items produced and sold on behalf of his company.

The lawsuit claims that the defendants have set up multiple sites, storefronts and social media accounts to sell their bogus products, expending considerable effort to get them to appear on search engines alongside or even above Bill Nye’s official site, causing material damage to his business.

The suit has been filed in a Northern District of Illinois court and is seeking a permanent injunction on the defendants’ activities, disgorgement of profits and statutory damages, as well as costs and attorneys’ fees.

Bill Nye the Science Guy ran on US TV between 1993 and 1999, but Nye has fronted several other shows – including most recently The End is Nye, which focuses on global disaster facing the plant and gives advice on how to survive, mitigate, and even prevent them.