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There is no way Lucas will lose this case, he is a tyrant when it comes to such issues and will bankrupt all those who resist his efforts to shut them down.
Star Wars costume-maker strikes back against George Lucas
By Saturday evening the humdrum office of a firm of City solicitors could have been mistaken for a distant outpost of the Galactic Empire.
Between the desks were the white suits and helmets that are known to Star Wars aficionados the world over as the uniform of the Imperial Stormtrooper.
The lawyers working late that night were preparing to do battle with the opposing legal armies of George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars films, over who owns the copyright on the stormtrooper uniforms, the headgear of the imperial fighter pilots and the helmet designed for Luke Skywalker as he led the final assault on the Death Star in the first film of the original trilogy.
Lucas’s business empire claims that it owns all the rights to the uniforms, while the lawyers at SimmonsCooperAndrew will argue that the rights are in fact vested in an obscure prop designer from Twickenham who made the first helmets and suits for the 1977 film.
Tomorrow morning the opposing sides as well as the assorted stormtrooper suits and helmets will arrive in the Chancery Division of the High Court.
The case, reported today in The Lawyer magazine, could have widereaching implications for the multibillion-pound business of film merchandising.
The back-story to this extraordinary episode requires an opening scene narrative all of its own.
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away — or at least as far away as America and as long ago as 1976, in the neighbourhood of a constellation of stars known as Los Angeles — a young Lucas was looking for a designer to build the uniforms for his latest low-budget science fiction space adventure film.
He recruited Ralph McQuarrie to draft pictures envisioning the uniforms of the terrifying army of a ruthless Galactic Empire. He wanted them to wear “spooky white space armour”. He then cast around for a designer to create them and the job fell to Mr Ainsworth.
Describing the arrangement in 2005, Mr Ainsworth said: “An artist friend of mine who Lucas had found took the opportunity to say he could do them (moulds) and what he really meant was, ‘I know a man that can do them’. I’m the man, so I created them for him. The first 50 helmets I sold to him for £35 each.”
The first film gained a huge following and spawned a colossal merchandising operation that, according to Lucas’s legal team, has brought in $12 billion (£6 billion) in “worldwide retail sales of licensed products since 1977”.
For his part Mr Ainsworth remained a designer and engineer and would later create a face-sucking monster for the Alien films. In 2004, however, he discovered one of the original helmets he had made in a cupboard in his home in Twickenham.
After successfully selling it to a collector, he began to manufacture the outfits once more, through his company, Shepperton Design Studios. He found a legion of Star Wars fans willing to pay up to £1,800 for a suit and helmet. Lucasfilm responded in 2006 by suing Mr Ainsworth. A judge in California awarded the firm $20 million (£10 million) in damages for copyright infringement, unfair compe ion and trademark infringment. It has now brought the case to Britain to ensure that this decision is enforced here.
Lawyers for Lucasfilm will argue that there was an implied contract to produce the uniforms, which were in any case based on artwork which it provided. Lawyers for Mr Ainsworth will argue that the copyright has expired, because the uniforms were pieces of industrial design rather than works of art. The case is expected to last ten days.
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http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle3695069.ece
There is no way Lucas will lose this case, he is a tyrant when it comes to such issues and will bankrupt all those who resist his efforts to shut them down.
He won't lose becasue it will set a precedent for all other movies.
Lose, he will not.
George Lucas sucks. He is a ty director now anyway. He totally forgot what made Star Wars great in the first place with the new trilogy, and now he is suing one of the dudes who helped him make him rich. I love Star Wars, but I think the real credit for bringing it to life goes to all the artists and special effects people that he is now ting on later in life.
Its not really in Lucas hands, its his bloodhound lawyers, with trademarks you have to pursue them agressively, it is an obligation to protect his trademarks or he stands to lose them. I have experience unfortunately after a run in with Square Enix.
I hate how he ruined the new ones with awful special effects. They were simply terrible and you can find better special effects on BSG which has a low budget.
Just awful work he did.
The second trilogy has to be some of the most overblown, bad filmmaking...evah.
What happen with Square Enix?
I was selling swords using trademarked names and images
You noobI was selling swords using trademarked names and images
did you heard about the recent case with one of there franchise games FF7 I THINK. Where some idiot made a MTV with costume designs base on the characters in that game, and SE was awarded 100k for infringement and about a 1m from the directors...some like that
no i didnt hear about that luckily i didnt have to go to court or pay any money but they did abscond one of my websites, finalfantasyswords.com but they paid me $60 for it.
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