The epic legal battle between Star Wars creator, George Lucas and prop designer, Andrew Ainsworth, has again flooded the headlines this week following a recent ruling by Britain’s Supreme Court. Not unlike the movie itself, the Court delivered a rather mixed ruling with something to gain and something to lose by both parties respectively.
The escalating legal battle all started with Lucas, a London based prop designer who designed the iconic storm trooper helmets for the "Star Wars" films and has subsequently been selling replicas online for several years. Ainsworth has been contesting this on the basis of copyright issues associated with the movie and the characters within.
As the Court has revealed, Lucas has been defeated in stopping Ainsworth selling replicas everywhere, however, copyright issues were identified in the United States which means Ainsworth will now be prevented from selling them in this country. The ruling, however, is quite a contrast to the events in 2004 when Lucas successfully sued the designer for 20 million - before of course, a series of UK courts intervened in 2008 and 2009 and started overturning the ruling.
This long running battle of determination and defiance is again strong testament to the importance of ensuring your IP is fully and adequately protected to avoid any serious loss in the future. It is crucial to seek specialist legal advice from an established intellectual property lawyer to ensure appropriate protection is in place, especially as businesses evolve over time, widening the need for IP protection across all areas. And, we mustn’t forget that whatever the nature of the business, it should in some way generate some form of IP either now or in the future so it’s best to get a professional opinion.
Michael Dyer comments ‘in view of this judgment it is distinctly possible Lucas will simply be saying “there is nothing for you here – move along.”’
If you require any legal guidance on this particular area or have any queries with regards to your IP rights generally, please contact our legal specialist in the area, Michael Dyer.
