Lights, Camera, Intellectual Property Disputes

The stars of Hollywood are no strangers to litigation with people seeming to sue each other on a regular basis, see for example the multiple stories about the Kardashians being sued or suing others. Cases of purported intellectual property theft are dealt with no differently, with the subject of many lawsuits being the unauthorised use of such property. IP law suits are particularly prevalent in the movie industry. Given that the industry is worth trillions of pounds, it's really no surprise that companies and corporations put in place robust protections to avoid and enforce against their intellectual property being infringed. In this blog we examine some cases regarding IP and the film industry where the action didn't stay on the big screen.

Captain Phillips

The media often report on lawsuits for defamation where someone is portrayed in an untrue, or less-than-desirable, way, but less common are lawsuits where it's claimed that the portrayal of a real person was too positive. This is what happened in the lawsuit 'The crew of the MV Maersk Alabama vs. Waterman Steamship Corporation and Maersk Line Limited' which concerned the 2013 film starring Tom Hanks. In the film, Captain Phillips, played by Hanks, is an upstanding man who works hard to protect his ship and crew from pirates. The crew of the real MV Maersk Alabama were not best pleased with this portrayal, claiming that the real Captain Phillips had purposefully sailed through the waters, knowing that there were pirates, in order to save time and money. This formed part of their lawsuit where they sued for damages for physical and emotional harm caused by the event.

Disney

Disney often seem to find themselves the subject of IP related lawsuits. From Frozen to Pirates of the Caribbean to the classic Pixar lamp, rightly or wrongly people are ready to claim that they deserve recognition or compensation for their 'stolen' ideas. But, it isn't always people taking legal action against Disney. Disney have shown that they have no problem starting formal proceedings of their own when they feel that their IP is being used improperly.

It is notoriously difficult for foreign companies to succeed with intellectual property disputes in China. A recent example is Apple's unfavourable judgement and subsequent injunctions in relation to smart phone patents. However, back in 2016 Disney managed to do it when...