Just months after a statue of Baphomet grabbed national headlines while briefly appearing outside the Arkansas State Capitol, the winged, goat-headed creature has stepped back into the spotlight—this time, taking its starring turn in the courts.
The Satanic Temple has sued Netflix and Warner Bros. in a New York federal court, alleging that the media giants lifted and misused its distinctive icon. The organization filed a complaint Thursday saying its copyrighted statue design, known as Baphomet with Children, appeared without its permission in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a new streaming series released on Netflix last month.
The temple claims that by doing so, the companies committed copyright infringement, violated its trademark and injured the organization's business reputation. All told, it is demanding relief on the order of more than $150 million.
"Among other things, TST [the Satanic Temple] designed and commissioned the TST Baphomet with Children to be a central part of its efforts to promote First Amendment values of separation of church and state and equal protection," the complaint explains. "Defendants' prominent use of this symbol as the central focal point of the school associated with evil, cannibalism and murder blurs and tarnishes the TST Baphomet with Children as a mark of TST."