Epic Games says it owns Jazz Jackrabbit, and Cliff Bleszinski says nobody can find the paperwork

Jazz Jackrabbit is a green rabbit with a blaster and a bandana, and right now he is the subject of a custody fight between the company that published him and the kid who drew him.

Cliff Bleszinski took to social media this week to complain that Epic Games, his former employer, will not relinquish ownership of the character. He created Jazz as the first character of his career, with sketches that go back to his teenage years, according to Time Extension. The game came out in 1994, in the post-Sonic era when every platform needed a mascot with attitude.

Epic’s answer, given in a statement to Dexerto and quoted by Time Extension, is short: “Epic owns the Jazz Jackrabbit IP. We pay 100% of revenue generated by the Jazz Jackrabbit games on Gog.com to the four individuals who developed the game, including Cliff Bleszinski.”

Bleszinski’s version has a loop in it that makes the whole thing funnier. “After lawyering up Epic claims they fully own the rights to Jazz Jackrabbit and won’t back down in spite of not having any paperwork to prove it (nor do I) in spite of the fact that they still pay me from sales of it on GoG (which means paperwork exists somewhere) and are still happy to monetize him in [Fortnite].” So the character still earns money, still turns up in Fortnite, and nobody can produce the document that says who he belongs to.

His fallback is the oldest trick in game development. “So, if I get around to doing a new one expect the ‘spiritual sequel’ route,” he wrote. “Business is business, I suppose.” The cover story for a spiritual sequel is always that it’s an entirely different rabbit. Anyone who remembers how many 1990s mascots were an entirely different hedgehog will recognize the move.

Time Extension frames the dispute as the old “do we own all your ideas when we own you?” argument and points to Bratz designer Carter Bryant’s former employer Mattel as a comparable case. Epic’s version of events, per its statement, is that the business arrangement settled the question. Bleszinski’s version is that a company that pays him royalties is admitting a paper trail it can’t show.

Spiritual sequels exist because rights fights like this one are cheaper to dodge than to win. If Bleszinski does make a new rabbit, the first thing readers will check is how different the ears are.

Somebody check the filing cabinet.