Inman started his campaign last week as part of a protest over legal threats he received from the website FunnyJunk.
In 2011, Inman published a blogpost noting that FunnyJunk had posted many of his comics without crediting or linking back to The Oatmeal.
A year later, FunnyJunk claimed the post was defamatory and demanded $20,000 in damages.
Instead of paying the baseless demand, Inman asked for donations for the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife Federation.
The campaign raised more than $200,000 so far.
An attorney for FunnyJunk, Charles Carreon, has now responded with a lawsuit filed on his own behalf. Carreon’s suit names Inman, the two charities, and the online fundraising platform IndieGoGo, claiming trademark infringement and incitement to “cyber-vandalism.”
“This lawsuit is a blatant attempt to abuse the legal process to punish a critic…”
