“Forgotten Hollywood”- Holy Roller… Batman!
Manny P. here…
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the caped crusader’s vehicle is entitled to copyright protection. The Batmobile’s appearance and other distinct attributes, including its high-tech weaponry, make it a character that can’t be replicated without permission from DC Comics, the copyright holder, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said.
The ruling came in a lawsuit against Mark Towle, who produced replicas of the Batmobile as it appeared in the 1966 television show featuring Adam West as Batman (left), and the 1989 movie with Michael Keaton in the lead role. The 9th Circuit said Towle sold the cars at his Southern California business for about $90,000 each.
In its ruling, the 9th Circuit said Towle advertised each replica as the Batmobile, and used the domain name batmobilereplicas.com to market his business. He also advertised that the replicas would get noticed because of the Batmobile’s fame.
Larry Zerner, an attorney for Towle, said his client copied the car’s design, which can’t be copyrighted. Towle also argued the Batmobile at times appeared without its bat-like features. But the 9th Circuit said that was akin to James Bond changing from swimming trunks to a tuxedo: It didn’t alter the car’s innate characteristics.
I say: To the Batcave with this whole frivolous lawsuit… And, so it goes.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2015 at 2:08 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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