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DC Comics Prevails In Batmobile Copyright Dispute

Posted by timothy on from the mechanical-royalties dept.

think_nix writes "Wired reports of U.S. District Judge Ronald S. W. Lew siding with DC Comics in the federal copyright court case against Gotham Garage owner Mark Towle. DC accused Towle of selling 'unlicensed replica vehicle modification kits based on vehicle design copyrights from plaintiff's Batman property, including various iterations of the fictional automobile, the Batmobile.' Lew noted that 'DC Comics pleads sufficient facts to support its allegations. Although, generally copyright law does not apply to "useful articles" such as autos.'"

2 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm actually ok with this by Daniel_Staal · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is a difference between 'a device inspired by, and with similar functionality to' a fictional device, and 'a device who's sole selling point is it's resemblance to a fictional device'. An iPad and a PADD may be conceptually related, but no more than Burger King and McDonalds are conceptually related. (Less, probably.)

    --
    'Sensible' is a curse word.
  2. I would, but Bill Finger and Bob Kane are dead. by Lanboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since the Batmobile debuted in 1941, using the copyright rules in effect of the times, the name would be public domain since 1991. Since our congressmen are apparently paid by Disney, this date was pushed to 2011 and now 2031. Let us try to guess how much in royalties the descendants of the creators of the name Batmobile will get. Lets see... Oh yes they will get ditkuss.

    Bill Finger probably made a total of 50K off of batman his whole goddamn life. So I am not crying for DC here.