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Lenox makes giftware and tableware, but among its stable of goodies are 5,344 animated parrots that were bought by subsidiary and debtor affiliate D 56 Inc. The rub with the toy birds is that they belt out Buffett's infamous tune, "Cheeseburgers in Paradise," a song for which the crooner owns a copyright and is asserting is being used illegally. Buffett claimed in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan that Lenox and D 56 "placed the parrots into the stream of commerce, including through the [I]nternet [W]ebsite at department56.com."
Buffett's attorneys sent Lenox a cease and desist letter nearly three years ago, in August 2006, and were assured days later that the birds would no longer be parroting Buffet's tune. Instead, they were to either be destroyed or turned over to Buffett himself. Apparently, however, that explanation was for the birds. "Buffett is not aware that the parrots have been destroyed or turned over," court papers said. Indeed, it appears the birds' whereabouts remain a mystery, leading to Buffett's filings with the Manhattan court. Though his attorneys at Greenberg Traurig LLP have scoured Lenox's schedules (documents that indicate what assets a debtor has), they have yet to find anything specifically that catalogues the existence of the rogue parrots. But Buffett, not taking any chances, has objected to the Lenox sale, just in case the business KPS is buying has some loose feathers lying around among its inventory. "While it is unclear whether the parrots are subject to the sale, Buffett files this limited objection out of an abundance of caution to prevent the parrots from being sold to a third party and placed back into the marketplace," his objection stated. If Lenox's sale is approved Friday, at least Buffett's team of investigators will have one less place to look. - Ben Fidler Categories Deal Video
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Bankrupt Lenox Group Inc. (OTC:LENXQ) may be on the verge of selling its assets to private equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP, but it has one caper to solve before closing the deal -- the case of singer Jimmy Buffett and the missing parrots.
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