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Netflix Sued By 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Publishers Over Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (polygon.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Polygon: Netflix's first interactive movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch makes no bones about its Choose Your Own Adventure inspiration, and that's reportedly caught the eye of the series' original publisher. Chooseco, a publishing company specializing in children's books, is suing Netflix for infringing on the company's "Choose Your Own Adventure" trademark. According to the official complaint, Netflix has been in negotiations with Chooseco over a license for the series since 2016, but Chooseco says Netflix never actually gained permission to use it. After the release of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch late last month, Chooseco has filed a complaint against Netflix for $25 million in damages, as the company says that Netflix's new movie benefits from association with the Choose Your Own Adventure series, without the company ever receiving the trademark. Chooseco says it sent a cease-and-desist request to Netflix at least once over the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark in the past. Netflix has declined to comment on the complaint.
I thought for sure that CYOA was generic as hell by this point. Everyone calls every story ever made in this format by that trademark.
Hmm, should I turn to page 93 to side with the plaintiff, or page 134 to side with the defendant....
I never thought that choose your own adventure books were actually related to this episode in any way other than an idea. I didn't once associate Chooseco with this Netflix - Black Mirror episode.
Even if I had associated them, is it an issue to come up with a story that has something to do with the writers childhood? Are we not supposed to write about the action figures we used to play with too?
--
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened - Dr. Seuss
And they haven't gone after every Visual Novel ever written?
Did silent steel get sued back in day?
You could've watched Castlevania. It's not Netflix's fault you make bad decisions.
But the only choices are to play as
1. USA
2. USSR
Nuts. You're probably right.
It really isn't. It was originally a British show (it ran on Channel 4) that Netflix picked up after the first two series. I haven't gotten around to watching the more recent episodes yet, but the originals were pretty good. If I had to describe it succinctly, "Modern Twilight Zone" seems to do a good job.
Of course it's modern TV so they can get away with a bit more. The first episode featured a plot where some British royal family member has apparently been kidnapped and the kidnappers are threatening to kill the person unless the Prime Minister fucks a pig on live television. That might sound crude (and it is) but it's just as engrossing as it is gross. I'd suggest giving it a try.
It seems like Netflix could have sidestepped the whole issue easily by using a different phrasing like "Devise your own journey" or something along those lines. I think there's a lot of legal precedence against them. Apparently if you want to use the phrase "Let's get ready to rumble!" you have to pay the announcer that came up with it.
IINAL, but it would seem to me if Netflix is using the CYOA statement as a descriptive term, and not implying their show is a CYOPA product they may be able to claim fair use. You can use trademarks in such as a way if they are descriptive and do not imply endorsement or cause confusion. If I read the complaint correctly the issue is a line in the show. t's pretty clear that Netflix makes movies, not children's adventure books, so an actor saying "This is like the CYOA book XXX" as par tof a scene isn't likely to cause confusion.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
This is yet another instance where I think they try to extend things too far. The "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series was aimed at kids, for starters. I used to be a big fan of those books as a kid, and tried to check them out at my local library whenever they had another one I hadn't read yet. But they certainly weren't "adult content" material. It seems odd to try to associate what they were doing with a Black Mirror episode that's clearly a lot more mature in nature. And all of that's before even asking if the idea of having multiple endings to follow in a book means you own the concept of doing an interactive TV show or movie with multiple outcomes?
The biggest problem, as someone else commented, by simply be Netflix using the "Choose your own adventure" wording to describe it.
Trademarks are for branding in written content, not spoken. The phrase, "choose your own adventure" is not trademarked because that is impossible. Even with subtitles they would have to be trying to confuse the customers with something that is similar to it's trademark, the words alone are not enough.
Coca-Cola would have a better chance of suing Pepsi for saying "it's like Coke but tastes better" in one of their commercials.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I was wondering when this was going to happen. IMHO, Bandersnatch really sucked much like the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. I remember reading them when I was a kid and wondering what the hell was so great about them.
Can a company patent a person's right to choose their own adventure in the consumption of entertainment? At what point does a "choose your own adventure" become a role playing game? Why don't they own the rights to those?
Depends on how it was framed. If they used it in marketing materials they *may* be in trouble. If a director, or producer, or Netflix exec said it in an interview, they are probably safe.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Anyone can claim a trademark. After using it a while, they can apply for registration. They will learn that some things qualify and some don't and some are indeterminate. A name like Xerox was easy to qualify because it was an invented word and nobody else had claimed it.
Even if you can register a TM, it may be challenged in court on various grounds. Suppose you claimed Lunch Time as a TM. It is far more likely than Xerox to have been used already and it is a risky choice. Someone might argue that Lunch Time is a common phrase undeserving of a trademark.
Failure to continuously use your TM can forfeit your rights. Failure to defend it in the face of others' using the same mark can forfeit your rights. IP law is complicated and not always rational and may have changed since I glanced at it in 1975.
...omphaloskepsis often...
If the series (I haven't watched it) used the phrase "choose your own adventure" to quickly get across the concept of a story where the audience determines the progression of the plot, that actually sounds like a pretty good argument that the trademarked term has become genericized, and grounds for rescinding the trademark.
Maybe the judge will have some fun with this.
If the plaintiff wishes to proceed with the facepalm of the year lawsuit, turn to page 47.
If the anything-to-make-a-quick-buck plaintiff wishes to wisely drop this complete waste of my time, turn to page 93.
That was stupid and amateurish.
Really? Isn't there such a thing as fair use. IIRC all they said was something to the effect of "it's a game like the choose your own adventure books" which I had actually never heard of before (it was Fighting Fantasy when I was a kid) so I actually thought they had just made up the name for the show to avoid upsetting Fighting Fantasy which is ironic given that, thanks to Chooseco, Netflix is now fighting fantasy.
Castlevania's first "season" was pretty interesting. The second was poop.
You are out of your freaking mind if you think they don't have quality content.
Go back to your free range organic television shows. Fucking hipster trash can't stand when things get big and popular. They think every single thing in the world needs to be some kind of small batch bullshit that only they know about or it isn't worth shit.
I tried Black Mirror, and the first episode turned me off. The only thing interesting about it was the sheer outrageousness of the ransom request, which I just assumed would be brushed off as nonsense. But nope, an entire episode about a guy dealing with the threat and then reality that he'd have to fuck a pig. Nothing in the episode made up for how dumb that premise was.
Then you missed the whole plot for it was nonsense, the kidnapper released the "Princess" long before the guy fucked the pig.
Yes, some of the CYOA books -- including #1, The Cave of Time -- you could get trapped in a loop. And "Inside UFO 54-40" had an unreachable ending.
The first episode is probably the worst one. Normally people I know who recommend the show, just say skip the first episode. I would really recommend giving it another shot. A million merits or white Christmas are good.