Moviegoers won’t find out who wins the head-to-head match-up in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” until March 25, but Batman has already scored one recent intellectual property victory in the courtroom. Recently, DC Comics and Warner Bros., Inc. won copyright protection for the superhero’s signature vehicle, the Batmobile. Last week, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, solidifying the legal win. DC Comics first introduced the nocturnally themed vehicle in 1941, and over the years, it has enjoyed many changes and interpretations. Recently, a high-tech version with a built-in motorcycle and aircraft was featured in the trilogy of Batman movies directed by Christopher Nolan.

The defendant, Mark Towle, is a custom car manufacturer who creates replicas of vehicles prominent in pop culture. He produced replicas of the Batmobile featured in both the 1966 TV show and the 1989 film featuring Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton, and those replicas sold for around $90,000. He even had a website set up for the vehicles’ sale: batmobilereplicas.com. In May 2011, DC filed suit, alleging copyright and trademark infringement, and Towle attempted to dismiss the case on the grounds that the Batmobile, a mere vehicle, was not afforded copyright protection.

On appeal, the Ninth Circuit said the Batmobile itself was a character and analyzed its ability to receive protection using a three-part test: (1) whether the character has physical as well as conceptual qualities; (2) whether it is sufficiently delineated to be recognizable as the same character whenever it appears; and (3) whether the character is “especially distinctive and contains ‘some unique elements of expression.’” The court answered all three questions in the affirmative, noting for instance that the car has received physical manifestation in movies and comics and that it has a highly recognizable name.

In conclusion, the judge ruled:

“As Batman so sagely told Robin, ‘In our well-ordered society, protection of private property is essential.’ Here, we conclude that the Batmobile character is the property of DC, and Towle infringed upon DC’s property rights when he produced unauthorized derivative works of the Batmobile as it appeared in the 1966 television show and the 1989 motion picture.”

Your move, Superman.

Sources: http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2015/09/23/13-55484.pdf http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2015/09/23/batmobile-wins-copyright-protection/ https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160309/10003033850/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-batmobile-copyright-case.shtml

For more information on this topic, please visit our Copyright Infringement Defense service page, which is part of our Software & Copyrights practice.

Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution.  Additional information about the copyright law firm and its copyright attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.

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