In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California, the plaintiffs alleged that George Wilson, based in Michigan, has infringed their intellectual property rights.

For the designs of the cakes Wilson allegedly used images of characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, superheroes Spider-Man and the Hulk, and other characters from well-known films.

Japanese company Sanrio, which owns the IP rights to the Hello Kitty character, is also listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs claim that Wilson’s unauthorised use of images of the characters infringes their copyright and trademarks.

Wilson allegedly sold the cakes through his eBay accounts wilsonwildcakecreations and wilsoncakeimaging. Users can purchase a cake from Wilson’s eBay account for $7.25.

According to the court document, filed on September 2, Wilson has acted in “wilful disregard” of laws protecting the plaintiffs’ goodwill and related proprietary rights and has confused and deceived, or threatened to confuse and deceive, the consuming public concerning the source and sponsorship of the products. Through his wrongful conduct, the suit added, Wilson has “traded upon and diminished plaintiffs’ goodwill”.

All the plaintiffs have apparently contacted Wilson about the alleged infringement but so far he has given no notice of whether he will cease trading, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are requesting that all machinery and equipment used to create the cakes be transferred to them and that any damages awarded be tripled.