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

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

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.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

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


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    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."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2008 @ 4:52pm

    yep

    this is funny
    hahaha
    What were they thinking at WB ?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    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"...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    fATIMA, 24 Sep 2008 @ 7:50am

    HUH?

    WTF???!!!!!!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    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?

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.