Some interesting news stories from today, including a report at close....
A short time ago, in a galaxy not too far away, Star Wars studio Lucasfilm won their case for copyright infringement against a small British design studio for the sale of replica stormtrooper helmets and uniforms.
Today, they take their fight to the High Court to try to enforce that judgement in the UK and settle once and for all the 'Saga of the Star Wars Stormtroopers Copyright'.
Back in 1976, Shepperton Design Studios produced the original stormtrooper helmets for the first film. At the time, Star Wars was a relatively low-budget, low-tech, high-risk venture into the unpopular genre of Sci-Fi and George Lucas was a young, unknown director.
With no formal contract, it will be for the courts to decide where the division of copyright lies. Intellectual property rights lawyer Robert Lands told Sky News Online: "The default position is that if there is no written contract, the person who created the work owns the rights, so that would be Shepperton. "But the court could in certain circumstances imply that the contract is such that the rights belong to the company - to Lucasfilm.
"Lucas is saying that this is a copyright infringement because the stormtroopers were depicted originally by an artist, Ralph McQuarrie, who did a fantastic production painting, which was then given to Shepperton Studios to create the props.
"So Lucas is going to say the props are derived from the artistic work and they therefore infringe the artistic copyright, which belongs to Lucasfilm," Mr Lands said.
Shepperton are expected to argue that the costumes are covered by design rights law - where the protection ends after 10 years, and not artistic copyright - which lasts for the artist's lifetime, plus 70 years.
Furthermore, if they can prove that they added something significant to the final design - that they contributed meaningfully to the stormtrooper look - they could counter-sue for a share of the copyright, and a corresponding chunk of the £6bn merchandising mountain.
"It is amazing, back then, there wasn't something more specific put in place," explained film critic Wendy Lloyd.
"With hindsight, of course, we live now in such a litigious world that it's very hard to believe that all these things aren't absolutely clarified down to the finest detail.
"People these days are very savvy, in a way that they weren't 30 years ago."
And so the case of Lucasfilm Ltd v Shepperton Design Studios will be heard by the High Court's Chancery Division. The two sides will march their respective private armies of Imperial Stormtroopers and Rebel Fighters into court and before the judge. The dusty benches of the Royal Courts have witnessed many things - cases both spectacular and scandalous - but they will never have seen anything like this.
Life-Sized Stormtrooper Appears In Court
Updated:17:51, Tuesday April 08, 2008
A Star Wars Stormtrooper has come face to face with a High Court judge in a multi-million pound battle over the rights to the costumes used in the films. George Lucas, the creator of the sci-fi series, is suing prop designer Andrew Ainsworth, who made the first helmets and suits for the original 1977 film.
He is now selling replicas made at his studio in Twickenham, south west London. As well as the Stormtrooper, a life-size model of an imperial fighter pilot, the head of a Tuscan raider and numerous helmets and body parts were brought into the court.
Michael Bloch QC, representing Lucasfilm, told Mr Justice Mann: "The gentlemen sitting in front of me and around me, who are known throughout the world, are the subject matter of the entire case." The judge, looking at the white armour of the Stormtrooper in front of him, asked: "Will they be there for the entire case?" The barrister replied that there would be "no rustling of papers or use of telephones" from them, and that they would be staying for the time being.
Mr Bloch continued: "As far as we know they are half human and half non-human and are known as Stormtroopers. What we are dealing with are characters of the imagination." He claimed they evolved through teamwork and the original ideas from George Lucas who got Ralph McQuarrie to draw pictures of his vision.
Prop designer Mr. Ainsworth was sent some of these pictures to create the helmets and was paid £35 each for 50 helmets for the original 1977 film, the court heard. It was not until 2004 when he found one of the original helmets in a cupboard at his home that he sold it to a collector .
He then began manufacturing Stormtrooper outfits and selling them through his company Shepperton Design Studios to Star Wars fans for up to £1,800 each. Mr. Ainsworth claims that the copyright has expired because they were pieces of industrial design rather than works of art.
Three Academy award winning designers who have worked on the Star Wars films are due to give evidence in court over the next ten days. Lucasfilm has already successfully sued Mr Ainsworth for £10 million for copyright infringement in a case brought in California.
Cheers
Jez
