the copyright question

The manufacturers of licensed material received prior approval. Though, the world "Gotham" has been around a lot longer than Batman, so I don't know if they have any legs to stand with their suit. We had a restaurant in our town called "The Hobbit Grille" and they were sued by the Tolkien estate, but then again, Tolkien invented the word. Gotham has been around for quite some time.

 

Maybe because they know these Gotham Garage people have money, so they're going after them.

 

Is WB just only suing them over the word "Gotham" or because they make Batman-related stuff for profit without paying licensing fees?

 

I guess since they have the mean to make replicas and sell them without paying license fees is why WB is going after them.

 

If you believe in IP Protection, then yes, this would allow them to sue the garage as with each replica, it diminishes the value of the existing models and the brand.

 

I'm still going with the assumption that WB knows those guys have money compared to people who are selling smaller things like posters and shirts.

I don't go on eBay looking for that stuff, so I don't know what exactly people are selling that's Batman-related.

 

WB might have chosen to sue this particular garage because it is making a substantial profit from Batman-related sales and because it is easier to sue an incorporated business than some random sellers online. One would assume that the custom cars cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, which puts them in a different class from small ticket items like masks and toys. The studio not only wants a licensing fee for expensive merchandise, it also wants exclusive control of who gets to use its characters, designs and logos. Going after the garage makes legal and economic sense for them, whereas going after smaller sellers would not.

 

I think that is the line that most companies use. Usually when people make replicas to sell, the company doesn't care unless there's an equivalent official product on the market. Then they want you buying the official product, of course, and will sue to free up that market.

I remember reading about renting "Disney" princesses for little girls' parties. They usually don't use the official Disney names when marketing their services, but Disney doesn't care because they make a KILLING selling party favors for such parties.

 

It's probably easier to go after a Car dealer than all the small time ebay sellers. I'm just assuming that's why this happened. I'd love to own a replica though.

 

Not exactly, but pretty much yes. I can't link to the thread directly because of language, but Google "AssassinPrincess" and you should get the whole lowdown on the Something Awful forums. She explains it in great depth there.

Here's the relevant stuff about copyright though:

So as long as you aren't making the relevant company LOSE money, I think they'd be like, "Okay whatever, not worth it." The party princess companies actually make Disney money indirectly, so they're extra blase about enforcement.

 

Therefore there's no equivalent market for WB, the way I see it. They can get the cheap official masks from WB, or they can buy the better-quality ones on ebay. There is no official "great quality mask" market that the replicas are eating into.

Also, ebay is kind of a free-for-all and there's just no way that WB can get everybody on there.

 

Hm, dunno. Gotham has been another name for New York for a while now. I remember growing up you could get Yankees posters with your favorite player on them, and the background read "GOTHAM GREATS" or something like that.

 

Yeah but in this case Gotham Garage isn't some car dealership, it's a business that specifically or for the most part makes batmobile replicas. I can see why the WB would go after them and not just some other car joint. The name plus the batmobiles is pretty much infringing completely on their copyrights.

 

So, WB wants people to go to that company instead.