George Lucas’s production company Lucasfilm Ltd. failed to convince Britain’s highest court that its U.K. copyrights were violated by sales of replica Imperial Stormtrooper helmets from the movie “Star Wars.”
The ruling today by the U.K. Supreme Court in London upheld a December 2009 appeals court finding that British engineer Andrew Ainsworth, who helped design the white helmets, didn’t infringe U.K. law by selling the copies, which he cast from original molds.
The ruling “maintains an anomaly of British copyright law under which the creative and highly artistic works made for use in films — which are protected by the copyright laws of virtually every other country in the world — may not be entitled to copyright protection in the U.K.,” Lucasfilm said today in a statement.
The company, based in Nicasio, California, filed the U.K. case after winning a $20 million judgment against Ainsworth in a California lawsuit over the helmet sales in 2006. The judge in that case said Ainsworth’s company, Shepperton Design Studios Ltd., infringed Lucas’s copyright and made misleading claims about the helmets’ authenticity.
Lucas had already determined the look of the fictional soldiers for his 1977 science-fiction epic, before asking Ainsworth to work on the helmets, Lucasfilm argued.
Lucasfilm didn’t convince the court the helmet qualified as a sculpture, as opposed to being a purely utilitarian creation. If the court had deemed it a sculpture, Ainsworth’s online sales would have been violating U.K. copyright law.
Work of Art
“It was the Star Wars film that was the work of art that Mr. Lucas and his companies created,” the justices wrote. “The helmet was utilitarian, in the sense that it was an element in the process of production of the film.”
People interested in intellectual-property protection may now be watching for Lucasfilm to take its case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, said Thayne Forbes, a managing director at brand-valuation company Intangible Business Ltd.
“The Star Wars films are an upmarket, fantasy experience for the audience, and the merchandise must be reflective of this or it risks damaging the brand value,” Forbes said. “What Lucasfilm quite rightly wants to avoid is stormtrooper helmets and armor being found in cheap plastic-toy territory.”
The ruling today gave Lucasfilm a partial victory by granting it some rights to sue in the U.K. over infringement of foreign copyrights. That portion of the judgment is an “important step” in modernizing U.K. law and bringing it into line with the European Union, Lucasfilm said.
Long-Running Controversy
The decision is important for business because it clears up a long-running controversy over whether U.K. courts can decide if non-U.K. copyrights have been infringed, said Nigel Jones, a lawyer at Linklaters LLP in London.
“That uncertainty has now gone,” Jones said. “If you want to sue here, that is good news. If you want to avoid being sued here, it may be less welcome.”
The U.K. Court of Appeal in London said in its 2009 decision that Lucasfilm couldn’t enforce the California judgment in the U.K. and warned Ainsworth about the risks of further sales in the U.S.
The “surprise” decision from the Supreme Court could lead to a flood of copyright lawsuits filed in the U.K. over foreign infringements, said David Allen, who leads the litigation practice at law firm Mayer Brown LLP’s London office.
“This will be particularly significant where infringement takes place in a country with less stable and internationally respected legal systems than the U.K., for example such as in the developing world,” Allen said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in London at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net
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