My pal Andy Ihnatko raises an interesting point. I'll meet you on the other side of it to give my response…
The suit brings up an issue that I've been pondering for much of my life: was it OK for animation studios to swipe/steal/homage/tribute comedians by creating cartoon characters that incorporated their famous mannerisms? I've no doubt that Jerry Colonna (for instance) was flattered when a character used his vocal mannerisms and bits of his signature "look." If anything, it served to underscore his fame and popularity, and gives the man a little immortality. But in a broader sense, Phil Silvers spent years developing and perfecting his signature character; was it OK for Hanna-Barbera to just help themselves to it? Why would they have based a character on Bilko's mannerisms, unless the company considered them commercially valuable?
Obviously, this is more of a philosophical question. The Winters case is more about the nitty-gritty technical issues. But I try to put myself in that situation. I'd be flattered if someone put me in a DC comic but I don't know how I'd feel if this "Andrei Ivanetko" started to appear as a major regular character. I'd probably be fine with it (so long as Andrei wasn't depicted murdering babies or attending alternative-dance performances) but then again, my standard of living doesn't rely on my maintaining a marketable and uniquely-identifiable public image.
My response: I think there's a line that is sometimes crossed. And while we might argue where it is, I think most would agree that it isn't crossed with a one-shot throwaway, or when it's done often and the person depicted doesn't object. Jerry Colonna wasn't portrayed in that many Warner Brothers cartoons, and I'm sure they'd have stopped if he'd indicated any displeasure. Some of the stars who did animated cameos in WB cartoons were also under contract to Warner Brothers, so that was a little different situation.
A lot of people thought The Flintstones crossed the line in aping The Honeymooners, and I believe many who worked on or around the show thought that. In at least one interview, Jackie Gleason said something like, "Yeah, we thought of suing but why bother?" I don't think the several H-B characters inspired by Phil Silvers crossed the line. The voice Daws Butler did for some of them was interesting in that it reminds you of Silvers but if you heard them back-to-back, you'd see they were quite different. It was almost like he was doing what Phil Silvers should have sounded like. Same thing with the voice Daws did for Snagglepuss, which was based loosely on Bert Lahr. Lahr actually took legal action…though not when the cartoons came out. He sued when Snagglepuss became the spokes-lion for Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies. Lahr was then making the best money of his life doing commercials for Lay's Potato Chips, and he understandably saw the cereal commercials as a way of getting a Bert Lahr voiceover and implied endorsement without paying Bert Lahr. The parties involved settled out of court, and Daws got a credit out of the deal. On the rest of the commercials that were made, they superimposed "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler" on the screen briefly in order to tell the world that it wasn't Bert Lahr they were hearing.
If the Lahr case had gone to trial, the key issue would probably have been to what extent his name and reputation were being exploited. If he could have convinced a jury that kids were rushing to buy Cocoa Krispies because they thought Bert Lahr had endorsed them, he might have had a good case. As I understand it, the Winters boys are claiming not so much defamation as exploitation of their images; like someone had put out a piece of Winters Brothers merchandise without making a deal with them. The assertion sounds shaky to me. Then again, so did O.J.'s alibi.
Ultimately, I do think parody (and its less justifiable companion, "homage") are sometimes employed as a means of ripping-off someone's name or property. But I think the folks who least have the right to complain when they are depicted are comedians. One of Phil Silvers' first professional acts was imitating Maurice Chevalier. I'll bet you Jerry Colonna did someone else at some point. Those guys knew the drill.