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Hari Puttar Beats Harry Potter In Court: Court Rejects Warner Bros.' Complaint

from the hari-puttar-and-the-free-publicity dept

Tue, Sep 23rd 2008 1:56pm — Mike Masnick

Remember last month when Warner Bros. studio tried suing to stop the release of a movie in India called "Hari Puttar," claiming that it was too close to the Harry Potter franchise (despite the fact the stories and pronunciation are entirely different). Well, it would appear that Warner Bros. didn't have any wizardry on its side this time around, as a court rejected the studio's complaint allowing Hari Puttar to be released as planned this Friday. A big part of the rejection was the fact that Warner was aware of Hari Puttar for three years and waited until just before the movie was set to be released to sue. Apparently that didn't sit well with the judge.

Filed Under: hari puttar, harry potter, india, trademark

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erica stjohn, 23 Sep 2008 @ 3:09pm

Agreed
I have to admit - I can understand why the fact Warner Brothers waited 3 years and then decided to peruse this at the last minute would not sit well with the judge. Warner Brothers should have taken this action a long time ago if they wanted to be taken seriously.

As stated in the previous article:

"The movie makers insist their Hari Puttar has nothing to do with Harry Potter. The storylines are entirely different. Hari is a popular Indian name and Puttar means "son" in Punjabi. Plus, when pronounced correctly, it doesn't even sound like Harry Potter."

and "Leaving the movie as is doesn't take any money away from Rowling or Warner."
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2008 @ 4:52pm

yep
this is funny
hahaha
What were they thinking at WB ?
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K J Rowing, 23 Sep 2008 @ 6:52pm

Great, that means it's full speed ahead on my movie about a hirsute golfer named "Hairy Putter"...
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fATIMA, 24 Sep 2008 @ 7:50am

HUH?
WTF???!!!!!!!!
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mudlock, 24 Sep 2008 @ 3:33pm

Lost on purpose?
Would WB be so clever as to lose this on purpose, perhaps to create precedent for something more important?
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