Another $1 billion movie, another lawsuit
As THE DARK KNIGHT heads toward $1 billion in worldwide grosses, it was inevitable that lawsuits would be filed as unjustly neglected parties sought their rightful pieces of the caped pie, but the town of Batman, Turkey is taking it to the wall. Mayor Huseyin Kalkan is claiming that WB used his town’s name without permission. While simple media rights would seem to be the major factor here, it seems that the film’s worldwide success has taken a considerable toll on the good citizens of Batman:
The mayor is prepping a series of charges against Nolan and Warner Bros., which owns the right to the Batman character, including placing the blame for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film’s success has had on the city’s inhabitants.
Former natives of Batman are also said to have encountered obstacles when attempting to register their businesses abroad.
And so another human injustice is heaped upon the world stage. Can nothing be done to help the Batmanians? Perhaps this is a job for…Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot?
11/12/08 at 8:37 am
If this suit is successful, then what of Gotham and the numerous businesses in New York City?
What of Melbourne, Australia? Could those surnamed Batman sue for psychological stress?
And wither Springfield?
11/12/08 at 9:53 am
Can we get Adam West, Mayor of Quahog, to file a countersuit against the Mayor of Batman?
11/12/08 at 10:03 am
That is really lame.
11/12/08 at 10:18 am
Lame doesn’t begin to describe it, Matt.
11/12/08 at 10:49 am
“Warner Bros., which owns the right to the Batman character,”
Doesn’t Warner Bros. license Batman from DC? DC is always the plaintiff in the trademark infringment suits. Warners owns the rights as much as say, McDonalds for its happymeal toys.
11/12/08 at 10:56 am
Oh, sure! Now that there’s a billion-dollar-movie at play, the town of Batman sues! Why didin’t they sue when the town was a plot point in that Planet DC JLA Annual a few years back that introduced some Turkish superhero?
Actually, I’d be interested to see the actual complaint. Not to belittle the tragedies of suicide and murder, but I’m curious as to what argument they could possibly make that links this movie to a “high female suicide rate” or “a number of unsolved murders” which sound like sociological/cultural problems deeper than some movie…
11/12/08 at 10:57 am
yes, WB license Batman from DC, but DC don’t have the same money as WB so they going to try to sue the one with the most money. This is just a mayor trying to get money for himself he don’t care who really owns Batman.
11/12/08 at 11:01 am
“Doesn’t Warner Bros. license Batman from DC? DC is always the plaintiff in the trademark infringment suits. Warners owns the rights as much as say, McDonalds for its happymeal toys.”
That’s probably technically true on an intra-company level, but the fact is that DC Comics is a division of the overall Warner Bros. media empire, so it’s accurate and understandable to refer to Warner Bros. as the character’s owner, especially in quick reportage like this story.
11/12/08 at 11:09 am
The name of the city itself is short for “Batı Raman,” a nearby mountain range.
Case closed, I’d say.
11/12/08 at 11:16 am
Why so litigious?
11/12/08 at 11:31 am
If they want to look into suing for death counts stemming from associations to fictional characters, they ought to look toward religious literature.
11/12/08 at 11:43 am
This perfectly cromulent case will certainly embiggen Batman in the eyes of the world.
Pulphope: Spot on Sir!
11/12/08 at 11:56 am
Tourism is up, up and away. Oh, that was the town of Superman.
11/12/08 at 12:30 pm
Brian K. Vaughan really used the town of Batman for a plot point in a JLA Annual, apparently.
11/12/08 at 1:00 pm
yay paul…and really…sue me, sue you, sue everyone. enough already. good luck with that case . not.
11/12/08 at 1:07 pm
Winged freak … terrorizes?
11/12/08 at 1:21 pm
Tony Twist’s case didn’t have a leg to stand on either.
But he won.
Twice.
This looks like a good old fashioned ambulance chaser shakedown to me.
It will be interesting to see how far this goes before it mysteriously (and privately) goes away.
11/12/08 at 1:34 pm
Since the suit is a result of the movie, then Warner Brothers is the proper defendant.
As for religion:
http://www.freep.com/article/20081106/NEWS07/81106082/1009/NEWS07
As for Superman tourism, no doubt you’ve seen the photo of Barack Obama in front of the statue of Superman. That statue is located in the southern Illinois town of Metropolis. (Footnote: In 1850, it was proposed that Metropolis be made part of a Western District of Columbia.)
(And for Star Trek fans, head on over to Riverside, Iowa, the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk.)
11/12/08 at 1:56 pm
Um, this is the sixth Batman movie in the last 20 years. They just noticed?
11/12/08 at 2:04 pm
I wonder what happens when “Wolverine, Nevada” sues, or “Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham, Benin” sues…
11/12/08 at 7:33 pm
It must have been a slow newsday at Variety and THR to even give this attention- but alas - there it was - the headline story this morning.
How many copies have I seen in the trash around the office already?
How can the entertainment industry waste so much time on something so stupid and trivial?
Oh, and about those Olson twins…
~
Coat
11/12/08 at 8:43 pm
Seriously, I’d love to see that make it to U.S. Courts, then Turkey spends millions for continuing legal costs, then the lawsuit is simply laughed out of existence by the Judge and the United States of America.
11/13/08 at 12:26 pm
They’re upset because apparently Batman ripped off their town?
Turkish cinema and comics are NOTORIOUS for their flagrant copyright violations. They made a turkish version of STAR WARS, SUPERMAN, KILLING (the Italian fumetti neri villain), SPIDERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA and many others.
Many international film distributors don’t even bother to sell to Turkey anymore because once something is released in Greece it mysteriously ends up in Turkey on a bootleg.