British judge says Lucas owns Stormtroopers, sort of
by Doc on Jul.31, 2008, under General News
A British judge ruled that Lucasfilm owns the likeness of Stormtroopers in the U.S., but at the same time says that, at least in Britain, the copyright on the outfits have expired. Lucas sued Andrew Ainsworth, who created the design of the troopers, when Ainsworth asserted ownership of the design and started selling replicas, including in the U.S. Lucas won a $20 million judgment in a California court, but the British judge also ruled that the actual U.S. sales, which only totaled $50k-60k, were not serious enough to justify U.S. jurisdiction or enforcement of the judgment. Ainsworth is free to sell his replicas anywhere but the U.S.
August 9th, 2008 on 9:07 am
Lucas
is such a greedy bugger. You have enough man.