Storm Trooper Copyright Lawsuit Back On In the UK
from the in-a-galaxy-far,-far-away dept
Last year we wrote about a copyright fight between George Lucas/Lucasfilm and Andrew Ainsworth, the guy who created the original costumes for the storm troopers in Star Wars. Ainsworth believes that he has every right to now sell storm trooper costumes. Lucas, and his licensing empire, feel otherwise. It got to the ridiculous level of Ainsworth claiming that Lucas actually owed him money, for all the free merchandising Ainsworth has done for the various Star Wars movies by selling his costumes. Eventually, the High Court in the UK tossed out Lucas' claims, saying that the costumes were not works of art and not covered by copyright in the UK. It did note that there may have been copyright infringement in the US, but said that Ainsworth was immune from a US court ruling on the subject since his US sales were not that big.Apparently, Lucasfilm isn't happy about this and is appealing the ruling, claiming that the storm trooper costumes are indeed works of art, like sculptures. The whole thing, frankly, seems like a waste of time. Is it really that big of a concern to Lucasfilm if the guy who created the original costumes is selling them himself?
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Filed Under: andrew ainsworth, copyright, george lucas, storm troopers, uk
Companies: lucasfilm
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Other IP Rights At Stake?
Could Lucas argue that the Stormtrooper name is a trademark of Lucasfilm and, should Ainsworth want to create a replica of the Stormtrooper costume to sell, he can't call the name? I'd think that Ainsworth marketing a non-Lucas Stormtrooper costume would cause confusion and dilute the trademark of the stormtrooper and Star Wars name/brand/likeness.
I'm obviously not a UK (or US for that matter) legal expert but I know that if I came across Ainsworth's Stormtrooper costumes, I could think they are official Lucasfilm merchandise and, might place value on it I wouldn't have otherwise. I recognize the circumstances around acquiring the costume might change this but, still. How can one not be confused by two different (but alike) Stormtrooper costumes?
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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/storm+trooper
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The Frak?
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Another one
- Lucas has NO DESIRE to EVER make stormtrooper outfits for people to buy
- There is a pretty good demand for such items
- Someone steps in to fill the demand in the marketplace
- Someone is sued to prevent them from filling an obvious demand
- Lucas, if he wins, then gets to lock out anyone else from making these but his company. Since he WONT make them, it means NO ONE makes them, QED.
So, if this all comes to pass, the consumer loses, this guy loses, Lucas gets to be a bully and then NOT fill a demand that the consumer has HANDED to him. Copyright and Trademark abuse FTW! Just as the founders intended.
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Lucas just wants total control...
I wish this guy the best - I don't think it's reasonable for Lucas to be able to prevent others from selling Star Wars costumes (as long as they don't pretend to be authorized by Lucas).
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Re:
Unfortunately they can - however if you produce a copy of a German uniform from the 1930's and call it Stormtrooper then they can't sue. On the other hand if it looks like the Star Wars costume then they can.
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Well...
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Re:
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Re: The Frak?
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Also, why try to make and sell a good product when you can let someone else do all of the work and sell the product and then sue the crap out of them? Calling your lawyer is sure a lot eaiser than producing something that people want to buy, especially when you can win and the other guy will pay for your lawyer too.
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Re: Other IP Rights At Stake?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper
If anyone has rights to the word, prior use pretty much excludes Lucas unless he filed a Trademark for its application to a specific product.
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surely
well that is how it should be!
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Re: surely
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
If the author/creator was the IP rights holder, think of how many animated characters, mascots, sitcom characters, etc would be practically worthless to the company that actually PAYS for the stuff to be created.
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Re: Re: surely
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Re: Re: surely
What a wonderful world that would be.
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Re: The Frak?
From my understanding Mr Ainsworth did not even create the entire costume in the first place but rather only a part of it, so it were to come down to interpretation he should only be able to sell that part that he designed and created himself.
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This guy did NOT create the Stormtrooper costumes
In fact, while the original British judge ruled that Andrew Ainsworth violated U.S. copyright, but not British copyright, a most telling thing was this statement: "I do not accept Mr Ainsworth’s evidence on this point. I think that his factual case is born of a combination of loss of recollection over time, and his propensity to claim credit for greater creativity than he in fact demonstrated."
Ainsworth may claim to be a victim, but that's hardly the case. He's recently offered up reproductions of the original stormtrooper blasters as well, again claiming to be the creator, when in fact the props were developed by armorer Bapty’s, not Ainsworth.
The man deserves to get taken to the cleaners by Lucasfilm.
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Lucas Legal Department
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Update
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Re: The Frak?
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