Stormtrooper Attends British Court?
by Dan ~ April 9th, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized.“Imagine, you are a ‘Stormtrooper of the Galactic Empire’ and you wake up to get dressed when… when, where’s your uniform? That’ right, it’s on loan for a lawsuit hearing in London’s High Court.
George Lucas’Â Lucasfilm Ltd. lawyers had a show down in court with a British prop designer, Andrew Ainsworth, over copyright infringements with the infamous ‘Stormtrooper’ uniform in question. Apparently, Lucasfilm claims that the prop designer is violating copyrights and trademarks by his use of the oringinal molds. Currently, Ainsworth is creating and selling replicas via the internet.
Ainsworth was oringinally hired to help design the helments for the first ‘Star Wars’ movie back in 1977.
In other news, Lucasfilm had already won a twenty million dollar lawsuit against the prop designer in California courts back in 2006. Lucasfilms is now seeking that a similar judgement also be enforced in Britain. In retaliation, the prop designer is countersueing. He claims that the ‘copyright rests with him and [is] seeking a share of merchandising revenue from the six “Star Wars” films, which his lawyers estimate at $24 billion.’
On Tuesday, the first day of a ten day trail, the judge stated ‘Are they going to stay there for the entire trial?’ as he looked on at a collection of six foot tall, gleaming white ‘Stormtrooper’ uniforms.”
What do you all think about it? Who should get copyrights?
Source: Yahoo! Movies: Movie News