A September 23 hearing before Judge Noël Wise will see initial plaintiffs Spyder Games and Speedy Simulator Gaming, as well as defendants and now counterclaimants Mementum Labs argue the actions filed by the other side should be tossed out.
Now, if you don’t have someone under 18 in your life or you missed out on the plethora of AI-generated characters that started flooding Instagram and TikTok just over a year and half ago, Roblox, Tung Tung Sahur and other Italian Brainrot offspring like Ballerina Cappuccina, and maybe even the very P&A friendly Fortnite may just not mean that much to you.
The duel between Spyder and Mementum should. Whether you are a West L.A. agent, an A-lister, a C-Suiter, a guild boss on Wilshire, Sunset or across the street from the Farmer’s Market on Fairfax, in a Hollywood where everyone is suspected of using AI a lot more than they will admit, it should matter a lot.
Out of the Wild West and Whac-a-Mole melee that is AI-generated content, this high tech high noon was all originally ignited by an a very low tech email.
Correspondence that France-based Mementum sent the Spyder Games owned Do Big Studos in mid-2025 over the presence of the hugely popular chacacter known as Tung Tung Sahur showing up in the Roblox hunting an gathering sensation Steal A Brainrot. Having already entered deals with Epic Games’ multi-platform, multi-player blockbuster Fortnite, Mementum, who licensed the wooden stick with feet, a smile and a baseball bat TTS from its Indonesian creator Noxa (AKA Fernanda Bagas Indrastata), asked DBS to strike a deal with them to also use mega-meme Tung Tung Sahur.
Couple of emails, some negotiations, a Zoom or two among legal beagles, and it’s all settled with a few wire payments, right? Not this time. Not in the new arena of creation and content being created every digital minute of every dopamine packed day.
Yes, the parent and teacher scorned Roblox took Tung Tung Sahur down for a spell, giving Mementum a brief win. However, almost as quickly as talks between the parties hit an impasse, Spyder went on the offense and sued Mementum. That tactic set off a chain of legal and bottom line events that all lead to next month’s hearing and potentially a trial next year.
“This case is one front in a global fight that touches on a bigger issue: Can companies commercialize works that people create without getting their permission or providing them with compensation simply because those works were created with the involvement of AI?” states Mementum outside counsel Steven Stein, who is leading the charge for the Euro start-up with Greenberg Glusker colleagues Greg Martin and Andrew Lux.
“We think the answer is no.” Stein adds bluntly.
As of right now, with the outcome(s) of next month’s hearing being the wild card, a trial is set to start on November 29, 2027. Like that eminently watchable clip that went viral a few months back of two million Tung Tung Sahurs charging the U.S. Army, this has gotten busy lately in the case.
“This motion is also made on the grounds that Plaintiffs’ Second Claim for Declaratory Relief—three declaratory relief claims packaged as one—is a mirror image of Mementum’s counterclaims,” that Mementum filing of last week insists. “These claims ask the Court to adjudicate the inverse of Mementum’s counterclaims—that Mementum does not own valid, enforceable trademark rights in the Tung Tung Sahur name and image marks, and that Plaintiffs’ use of those marks does not infringe those rights or constitute unfair competition.”
Whoever gets their wish at that late September hearing, or if the judge goes a whole other direction, the die will be partially cast on how much human you need or don’t need in AI-generated content. Any result could also establish for studios, streamers, YouTube and the creator economy and everyone making money off them, whether protectable assets as we have long known them are actually solid or porous.
Sending a shudder or a soothing hand (totally depending on your POV and 401K) down the back of the media eco-system, take of the Steal A Brainrot crew and their MSK team is that nobody owns nuthin even with a few keystrokes and prompts.
“Mementum started this dispute when it sent a cease-and-desist letter to my clients, the makers of the immensely popular Roblox game Steal A Brainrot,” MSK’s Aaron Moss tells Deadline. “Mementum claims to be the owner and ‘commercial gatekeeper’ of dozens of the viral ‘Italian Brainrot’ memes,” he adds. “But the Brainrots aren’t owned by Mementum—or anyone else—because they are fully AI-generated content. We took Mementum to court to fight their cease-and-desist letter. Mementum is trying to run from that fight by withdrawing its letter. We don’t believe Mementum’s hit-and-run tactics will succeed and anticipate this case continuing beyond the September 23 hearing toward a final judgment vindicating that the AI-generated Italian Brainrots are free for anyone to use.”
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