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'The Hobbit' Pub Threatened With Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes "'The Hobbit,' a small pub in Southampton, England, has been threatened with a lawsuit by lawyers representing the Saul Zaentz Company in California. The pub, which has traded under the name for the last 20 years without incident, now faces closure if it does not change its name. It's yet another example of big business throwing its weight around to get its way. The pub's landlady said simply, 'I can't fight Hollywood.'"
Here:
http://www.facebook.com/SaveTheHobbitSouthampton?ref=ts
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Dungeons and Dragons before it was bought by Wizards of the Coast.
It's an American company doing the suing.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
If you look at their website, you'll see they use likenesses of the characters from the movies in their advertising. If the pub was just using fan artwork or coming up with their own graphical material (while using the names), they may have been left alone. But they are using the faces from the movie in their own advertising and promotional material (posters, loyalty card). That's just asking for trouble.
Its not what it is, its something else.
If your idea of Nazi style jackbooted fascism is a bar being sued because they use direct images from the LotR movies in their advertising, then you're pretty well off, and really don't understand what the people that were actually exposed to fascist tyranny actually had to put up with.
Of course they can't fight Hollywood, since they've been using stills from the movies in their advertising. Take a look at their website, that's obviously a photograph of Elijah Wood from the LOTR movies on their "One Card To Bind Them All" loyalty card:
http://www.hobbitpub.co.uk/drink-offers/
They're not fighting Hollywood since they don't have a leg to stand on. If they would have used original artwork instead of copyrighted images from a movie, I'd be on their side.
A bit of information friend... since we became a nation of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation... the government/corporations (they've effectively become one and the same) and the nations people are no longer on speaking terms. Americans are way more pissed off than you ever will be, because our corporations crap on the world weekly but they defecate on us here in the states every few seconds. Please feel free to club a CEO or two. You'll win friends and garner respect here in the states.
Did you see that tiny little text at the bottom of the site? It reads:
Site designed and built by frozendesigns.co.uk
Perhaps the pub should be raising some hell with them. Specifically on why they don't seem to understand the concept of building web sites using only original and/or royalty free images.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Thanks for that, all this time I was thinking:"Big bully Hollywood using lawyers for no good." Then I went to the site, that sort of looks like a Lord of the Rings fan club and thought:"Ah, shameless copyright infringement, nevermind."
Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
You most certainly can trademark a person's name, and it can be very commercial. If you are named such (and not the person holding the trademark), you can be legally prevented from using your own name in branding if it covers an industry in which another has registered it as a trademark.
Unfortunately, Hollywood has two major advantages:
1) Lots of money for lawyers.
2) It's the UK legal system.
But "Whosover files first wins", in trademark law.
Erm, no. Usage prior to registration is a defence against trademark infrinement, at least in the UK. http://www.inbrief.co.uk/intellectual-property/defences-to-trademark-infringement.htm