Lucasfilm had one of those up and down days in the UK courts.
They lost their appeal of a prior rejection in the UK courts against Andrew Ainsworth and his stormtrooper helmet replicas. In short, the stormtrooper helmets were considered to be utilitarian and not artistic (since they were used as a costume for a movie), so the “antiquated” UK copyright laws did not apply.
But, on the upside, Bloomberg says that this has established that companies can sue to enforce copyrights held in other countries. Corporate lawyers everywhere rejoice.
Similar piece here on the BBC website, with a tasty soundbite from my Jedi News co-owner James Burns.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12910683
As a creative person I can understand the guys perspective but I know that legally if you enter into an agreement to design and create something for someone else, and are paid for it, then the copyright goes to them. Unless specifically agreed otherwise. So I actually feel that Lucas Film were right.
The guy got paid for his work, he’s now making money off George Lucas’s success and the hard work of his company.
That being said I still want a helmet, and I bet they’d cost a lot more if old GL was selling them!
What I don’t understand is why they didn’t come to an agreement to share the loyalites for it. Yeah, Lucas owns Star Wars, there’s no doubt about that but the guy who designed and made the original helmets also uses his expertise in making them. Would people object to Michael A. Stackpole or Timothy Zahn to get paid for their written works of the X-Wing series and the Thrawn Trilogy? Probably not. What about artists getting loyalities for the work they do for trading card sets? People who have contributed to the Star Wars universe (I mean offically, not fans) have worked just as hard as Lucas has in creating it a success so I don’t see why they shouldn’t all make a living from it.