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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.'"
Terminate and Stay Resident? Am I increasing or decreasing my geek cred when I admit that's the only TSR I know?
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
Interestingly, the original edition of the Lord of the Rings is in the public domain in the US due to an error by his publisher at the time. Tolkien had to go back and make a revised edition and market it with a note on the back pleading with fans not to buy the Ace Books edition that he saw no royalties from. So presumably a similar pub in the US (e.g. Bilbo Baggins, in Alexandria, VA) is on safer ground than this one in the UK.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Mr. Saul Zaentz has a long history of being a dick. Zaentz sued Creedence Clearwater's John Fogerty for plagiarizing himself (!) asking $140 million in damages, and lost.
Zaentz's perception is that he owns the 'brand' Hobbit, although he only owns screen rights.
It holds all the water the lawyers can carry.
This case is not about the merits.
It's about a poor defenseless woman being outgunned in the legal arena and losing the case before it even starts because she's too broke to fight back.
While it does seem that way, think on this -
The Hobbit was published in 1937. Under life +70 copyright, it doesn't enter the public domain for another 30 years. This is ludicrous. 75 years after publishing, this stuff is part of our culture and should be free for all.
(Yes, I used to drink at this pub!)
Wizards can't. Hobbit is a trademarked word. Halflings from DND are hobbits with a different name. There was a lawsuit back in the day where Tolkien or his heirs sued TSR to stop the word hobbit from being used in DND. Unless its lisenced the word hobbit cannot be used comercially, including dining establishments.
And put up an apostrophe, it will be pronounced the same in cockney.
the `obbit
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Are they going to sue the dictionary too?
hobbit (hbt)
— n
1. one of an imaginary race of half-size people living in holes
2. a nickname used for a very small type of primitive human, Homo floresiensis , following the discovery of remains of eight such people on the Island of Flores, Indonesia, in 2004
Doctrine of Laches. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_%28equity%29)
If this pub has been around for 20 years and they haven't sued them in this time, the pub could assert that the owners have slept on their rights, and that the delay in bringing the suit would cost them a lot of money.
If they had made a case against this pub 20 years ago when they first started using the name, they'd have a much stronger trademark case. Trademarks have always been in the vein of "you snooze, you lose". If you don't defend your trademark religiously, you can end up losing it entirely.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It's a student pub- I'd expect no less.
Nice place too. They do these great cocktails in a pint glass named after LOTR characters- The Frodo, The Gollum, The Legolas, etc. The kind of filth-in-a-glass that only a student would find appealing, but great fun.
Although that probably doesn't do their trademark infringement case much good, come to think of it...
Unfortunately, Hollywood has two major advantages:
1) Lots of money for lawyers.
2) It's the UK legal system.
Actually, the UK legal system isn't very friendly to hollywood in this case. They would almost certainly lose if the case came to court (trademarks only work where somebody is likely to think the use of the name implies some kind of actual relationship between the two businesses, which nobody rational would in this case), and that means they would have to pay the Hobbit's legal expenses as well as their own. Because this is a likely outcome, the owners of the Hobbit are likely to be able to find a lawyer who will represent them on a conditional fee arrangement (i.e. they pay nothing, hollywood pays when they win).
(This is not legal advice.)