Star Wars Copyright And Trademark Litigation: The Empire Sues Back

Haven't seen the new Star Wars movie yet? The pop culture zeitgeist recommends that you binge-watch all six of the prior Star Wars movies before going to see Episode VII, The Force Awakens and, according to the Washington Post, there is some controversy about the proper binge-watching order. Should you watch them in narrative order (I through VI) or in film release date order (IV-VI and then I-III)? Apparently, the preferred order is: IV, V, I, II, III and then VI.

Well, I couldn't bear to sit through I, II and III again in any order so, instead of binge-watching six films, I binge-researched copyright and trademark opinions involving the Star Wars franchise and picked the six I found most interesting. Here they are in chronological order:

Star Wars v. Star Team

Before the first Star Wars film came out, the Ideal Toy company turned down a chance to make officially licensed products associated with the film. Ideal felt that "science fiction films were chancy," and that "Star Wars itself was a rather ordinary property." After the film smashed all box office records, Ideal "reexamined its opinion" and created a line of STAR TEAM-branded action figures, including the evil "Knight of Darkness" and the inseparable android buddies, "Zem-21 and Zeroid" (the Ideal catalogue advised that the purchase of additional Zeroids would increase the likelihood of defeating Darth V... I mean the Knight of Darkness). Kenner Products, the official licensee for STAR WARS-branded toy figurines, sought a preliminary injunction against Ideal, alleging both copyright and trademark infringement. As to the trademark claim, Ideal admitted that it was capitalizing on the popularity of science fiction created by the Star Wars phenomenon, and survey evidence demonstrated that 65% of children who were shown the toys "made an 'association' between them and the film." Nevertheless, the Court held that "a finding of general 'association' — that the toys 'look like' the movie or remind someone of the movie — does not mean that the prospective purchaser thinks that the toys are derived from the movie or 'sponsored' by the movie." The Court also found that Kenner was unlikely to succeed on its copyright claims. Ideal Toy Corp. v. Kenner Products, 443 F.Supp. 291 (S.D.N.Y. 1977).

Star Wars v. Battlestar Galactica

The success of the first Star Wars film convinced Universal to quickly green-light its own sci-fi property, Battlestar Galactica. Twentieth Century Fox felt that the new...