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Jury Awards Grumpy Cat $700,000

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — It still won't make her smile, but Grumpy Cat has won some scratch.

A California jury gave the furry frown queen more than $700,000 this week in a federal lawsuit over the use of her identity.

According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, owner Tabatha Bundesen of Morristown, Arizona, won the lawsuit first filed three years ago against the Grenade beverage company.

Grumpy Cat File
Grumpy Cat appears at Lifetime's Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever event at Macy's Union Square on November 21, 2014 in San Francisco, California. (Steve Jennings/Getty Images for Civic Entertainment Group)

She signed on for the cat to endorse a "Grumpy Cat Grumpuccino," but the company subsequently used the cat's image to help sell other products, which an eight-person jury on Monday found was unauthorized.

Grumpy Cat, whose dwarfism and underbite give her the permanent frown she's famous for, became an online phenomenon-turned-merchandising-machine after Bundesen first posted pictures of her in 2012.

(© Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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