• The Wall Street Journal , Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:15 AM

Corporations that own the rights to some of the television characters most popular with kids -- Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder and Hannah Montana, for example -- have been sending cease-and-desist letters, threatening lawsuits and in some cases receiving settlements from companies that market unauthorized character impersonators at venues like kids' birthday parties.

Some companies in the costume industry hire lawyers to advise them on how to stay out of trouble. Others are commissioning costumes that only slightly resemble characters owned by media companies. They have names like "Big Red Tickle Monster," instead of Elmo, and "Explorer Girl with Backpack, "rather than Dora.

The relationship between birthday parties and intellectual property has become more fraught as children's TV has gone beyond "Sesame Street" and become a multibillion-dollar business. Trademark holders say they are trying to protect the integrity of their brands; they don't want Dora to show up at a party with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. Attorneys note that if they do not actively police their trademarks in one realm, a court might later rule that they have forfeited their rights to enforce it in others.

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