Philly's can use their derivative Phanatic

Last year, I wrote about how the Philadelphia Philly's created a new version of their mascot the Phanatic because they were in a copyright dispute with the owners of the copyright holder for the Phanatic.

It turns out we were all missing the point.

A district court ruled in August 2021, that the new Phanatic was a derivative work of the original Phanatic. But, because the derivative work was created under the authority of the copyright grant before the grant was terminated, that the derivative work can continue to be used.

Image from Twitter used under fair use.