With success comes lawsuits. At this point you can't call yourself a success until someone attempts to sue you for a piece of the pie. Now Transformers (the movie) can official call itself a success as the first lawsuit has come.The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court by Alia Madden claims copyright infringement for the use of a modified Bee-otch air freshener in the movie is somehow costing her business. She claims that people are refusing to buy her product because they think she stole the idea from Transformers. Her idea was from 2002. The lawsuit is asking for $850,000 in damages.
As far as a lawsuits go that is probably the most reasonable value heard in a while. Usually its millions and millions someone asks for. Also kind of annoying that something as simple as taking the Be-otch phrase, adding a "e", can make someone a ton of money. Anyway, I find it hard to believe that people are refusing to buy her product because they think she is ripping off Transformers. One, I doubt people memorize background dressing quite that well and also do people really "fact-check" product like that and then refuse to purchase something just because it might be used in a movie? I also find it amusing she accuses them of deleting her copyright notice. Because you can see those type of things in a movie. I don't know about you but I hit that pause button and zoom in anytime a product grabs my interest just to very its legit.
Anyway, the whole thing smells funky to me. On the other hand I am so sick of the MPAA/RIAA heavy handed tactics of late that I do get a little giggle out of one of their representatives being sued for copyright infringement. (source) (image)
She might have also lost money considering she jacked the price of the air freshener up dollars more then the others to profit from the movie. That may be why people stopped buying from her. I went to buy one back when the movie first came out and didnt just for that reason.
ReplyDeleteOk. If you had your facts right you would be sensible. But this isn't a matter of simple product placement without a licensing agreement. Very few people sue over that (the last one I remember is Amy Grant suing Marvel for using an album cover for a Doctor Strange comic book because she was worried about occult influences.) despite the fact that it's also illegal. Had that been ALia's only complaint, she would have figured that free publicity is free publicity and left it at that.
ReplyDeleteAlia is suing Dreamworks because they stole her design, slapped a Transformers label on the back and marketed it as if they came up with it in the first place. She gets no royalties from those products and furthermore, she is accused of stealing from Transformers as opposed to vice versa (a similar thing happened when some hack screenwriter claimed that Alan Moore ripped him off with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.) Basically they are making money off of her without paying her a dime.
But the main thing is the design steal and marketing as if it was a Transformers brand product as opposed to an EvilKids brand product. That would be like me taking The Shining, slapping my name on it as if I wrote it and then publishing it through Dybbuk Press (my press.)