One cannot deny the fact that in the past few decades people around the globe, especially in America, have grown following the Star Wars series and the endearment for the same has only escalated with time. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars by 20th Century Fox which became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon and the rest as they say is history.
Since its inception Star Wars has turned into an eminent brand and anyone using the brand name or anything related to it even remotely cannot blame anyone for getting under the scanner. The same has happened with the Lightsaber Academy. The maker of Star Wars, George Lucas, has recently sued the Lightsaber Academy and the “Jedi Schools” for using its brand logo without any permission. The academy and the schools are being run in New York as well as Florida since 2005 by one Michael Brown, a software engineer by profession. The schools offer classes in the “8 core principles” of Jedi warfare including movement and form, footwork and stances, safety, and basic strikes. In a very short time these classes have gained immense attention from the masses and it cannot be refuted that the brand of Star Wars is majorly responsible for that.
Consequently, George Lucas, one of the major rights holders of the Star Wars, filed a complaint in the California District Court against Michael Brown including his companies alleging infringement of their well known trademark.
It is to be noted that Mr. Brown had in the past, sought permission from Lucasfilm (owned by George Lucas), to license the use of various Star Wars elements. However, all his efforts have gone in vain as Lucasfilm had denied him permission each time. Therefore, this lawsuit was always on the cards, especially when Mr. Brown filed his own trademark application to protect the logo that they have been using and it is more or less identical to the Lucasfilm’s trademark Jedi Order logo.
The film studio is now seeking up to $2 million in damages from Brown for every trademark infringement.
Source :1
Authored By- Nikhil Kumar
Image is in the Public Domain.
