Disney Sued Over the Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl

[Alan]

The wrestler is lame...

[Siren]

He looks more like he should have been in the old live action Batman show

Holy shark teeth Batman! It's Shark Boy!

[Isidour]

this is a joke rigth?
I mean, what´s wrong with this guy?

[DaveWadding]

this is a joke rigth?
I mean, what´s wrong with this guy?

Well, let's see...he has the name Shark Boy copyrighted...and Robert Rodriguez goes ahead and uses it anyways.

[memnv]

Shark Boy is a lame wrestler, I have heard he is hoping to get some publicity out of this and then get signed by the WWE. Don't do it Vince, you already got the Hurricane

[Disney Guru]

Today in the court room...

Wrestler Shark Boy nearly turned the court room into a wrestling ring when he blasted Movie Shark Boy with, "I was wrestling punks like you while you were still learning to swim!"

Movie Shark Boy charged Wrestler Shark Boy, yelling "My mama could eat your mama for breakfast!"

Movie Shark Boy was held back by several court room officers. He attempted to take bites out of them before they quickly muzzled him and removed him from the court room to calm down. Proceedings continue tomorrow...

Shark Boy
VS. Shark Boy

See it on pay-per-view this Sunday!

What is this guy some kind of a joker, he looks like a jerk and a loser. I vote No, he shouldn't sue Disney.

[2099net]

I'd agree in some cases of trademark infrigment, but not here.

Shark Boy the wrestler is likely a big, burly man.
Shark Boy the movie character is a little kid who was "raised by sharks".

Perhaps Shark Boy the wrestler doesn't want to be associated with a silly kids movie. But I see this as trying to get money more then anything else.

I work at an ebay store (people being items to us to sell on ebay for them). And we recently got a bunch of comic books. Over 700. I've had the task of digging through them for 2 weeks, checking each one individually. Did you know there were two Daredevil comics? Of was the Daredevil who is the blind superhero. The other Daredevil is a comedy comic about a group of boys. Similar to Our Gang/Little Rascals.
You have two totally different Daredevils. Who are totally different characters.
The same goes for Shark Boy/Shark Boy.

I personally think it is a waste of the court's time and tax payer's money.

Trademark law is very complicated, and Trademarks expire after seven years unless they are renewed. And to renew a trademark, it has to be demonstrated to have been in use over that seven year period.

Talking of comics, that's why Marvel revives out-of-print titles such as The New Mutants approximately every seven years! Either as a whole new on-going series or sometimes they simply publish a compilation of reprints as a special.

Talking of New Mutants, there was a mini-series published in 1997 here, simply to keep trademark and no other (artistic) reason, and a new ongoing series launched in 2003 here - the magical 7 years from it's last publication. I'm sure if you look you'll see lots of examples of series' being revived 6 or 7 years after their last publications (Captain Marvel is another).

And talking of Captain Marvel, Marvel managed to snag the trademark for Captain Marvel from DC Comics this way - DC had neglected their trademark - and now DC Comics can have a character called Captain Marvel, but they can not call the comic Captain Marvel. At the moment they call it "The Power of Shazam"

I'm not sure about this Daredevil other example, but looking at Google search it appears to have been published in the 1940s and 1950s (If these are not the comics you are talking about, another series of Daredevil comics were). Plenty of time for the trademark to expire.

Recently their was a case between the boyband 'Westlife' and cigarette company 'West' in Germany. And Westlife lost, as the courts decided there could be confustion between West and Westlife - simply because the company West puts on the odd Music festival. However, in this case Westlife were still allowed to use their name, being as it was in common use and trademarked in other territories. Only the were not allowed to trademark Westlife in Germany.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4512613.stm

Now, if there are any followers of this wrestler Shark-Boy, than its more than concievable that they too could get confused (much more than people getting confused between West and Westlife ). As long as Shark-Boy renewed his trademark and followed the rules, than I think he should sue Disney for as much money has he can get.

After all, Disney itself is notoriously litigious, and if they happen to have made a legal mistake, they deserve to pay for it - they don't give a second thought about their own legal actions, Disney police trademarks and copyrights they don't even own using the fact that they are a mega-corporation to intimidate others.

(and oh yes, according to Disney's own lawyers Tinkerbell and Peter Pan are now Public Domain. It appears Disney's legal left-hand doesn't even know that it's legal right hand is arguing).

There is no excuse for Disney to use a Trademark that is in use. There are professional Trademark Search companies who do nothing but check trademarks so that stuff like this doesn't happen. If Marvel Comics can afford to mark use of such services for every single new character they create I'm sure Disney can afford to do so for the titles of their films.

[Sunset Girl]

There is no excuse for Disney to use a Trademark that is in use. There are professional Trademark Search companies who do nothing but check trademarks so that stuff like this doesn't happen.

Agreed. That and the fact that Disney is so quick to sue the pants of off someone else for the same thing.

You know what my very first email address was?

<sunsetgirl@toontown.com>

You know why it no longer exists? You guessed it, the website that maintained it got a nasty letter from Disney, threatening to sue over copyright infringement.

Disney certainly has people looking out for and protecting their material, so they in turn should should do an equal amount of research to make sure they aren't infringing on any one else's copyright.

[Siren]

Technically, Rodriguez came up with the name Shark Boy. So shouldn't he be the one sued? At least in part? Disney is distrubuting it, but Rodriguez wrote the story and came up with the name (which by no means is an imaginative name anyways!)

[2099net]

Technically, Rodriguez came up with the name Shark Boy. So shouldn't he be the one sued? At least in part? Disney is distrubuting it, but Rodriguez wrote the story and came up with the name (which by no means is an imaginative name anyways!)

I know you're not going to want to hear this, but... it depends.

Chris Carter/10 Thirteen Productions came up with "The X Files", but if you look at any X-Files merchandise, you'll see the Trademark and Copyright belong to 20th Century Fox. Same with Buffy and Mutant Enemy I believe. Each situation and trademark holder is different I guess.

[Siren]

Technically, Rodriguez came up with the name Shark Boy. So shouldn't he be the one sued? At least in part? Disney is distrubuting it, but Rodriguez wrote the story and came up with the name (which by no means is an imaginative name anyways!)

I know you're not going to want to hear this, but... it depends.

LOL, nah. I don't mind hearing it. I don't truely care what happens. I just find the whole thing funny.
But I understand what you mean and where your coming from.

[LeiaP22]

Guru - as a former professional wrestling promoter I can verify that the huge majority of wrestlers are lifes losers. Unable to honor commitments for a variety of reasons, rampant drug use. Only did it once, hated the whole environment, so entirely unprofessional.

But that does not change the fact that in this case the wrestler is likely in the right.

Argggh - why is my wife signed in.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Shark Boy
VS. Shark Boy

They hardly looks anything alike! He is just waisting his money stupidly!

[Mr. Toad]

Timon - that is irrelevant. I cant start a restaurant called McDonalds and have a totally different theming and call it OK. The wrestler likely has a strong case.

[Lazario]

No I don't think this stupid lawsuit should be allowed to proceed.

And personally, I think this wrestler should be ashamed for having the audacity to expect Dimension to pay his attourney's fees. HE's the one who hired them!!! And he did so expecting pay off from a company that's now making it big.

He cannot copyright his generic-ass name, only his look. And as we all know, the two just don't look ANYTHING alike. He's just a wrestler anyway, and sports figures (especially 'pro' wrestlers) are INFAMOUS for changing their identities every two or three years or so. If this lawsuit goes through, then I could sue them and just say I thought of any idea before they did. Just because this studio is rich doesn't mean they should pay people like this, who are really just trying to rip them off. Either that, or he's not man enough to deal with the movie.

And besides, every movie goes through a stage of post-production where lawyers extensively look for anything they might have "borrowed" from someone or some group.

[chaychay102royal]

Timon - that is irrelevant. I cant start a restaurant called McDonalds and have a totally different theming and call it OK. The wrestler likely has a strong case.

Even though I think this lawsuit is stupid, I agree with you, Mr. Toad.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Timon - that is irrelevant. I cant start a restaurant called McDonalds and have a totally different theming and call it OK. The wrestler likely has a strong case.

Well opening a restaurant called McDonalds but have a different theme is different than this becuase this is a wrestler comparing himself to a movie character that don't have much in common except for the Shark theme.

[chaychay102royal]

Timon - that is irrelevant. I cant start a restaurant called McDonalds and have a totally different theming and call it OK. The wrestler likely has a strong case.

Well opening a restaurant called McDonalds but have a different theme is different than this becuase this is a wrestler comparing himself to a movie characters that don't have much in common except for the Shark theme.

He's not comparing himself to a movie character, he's saying the people who invented the character of Shark Boy stole his name. His name was trademarked and they ignored it, which is illegal.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Well opening a restaurant called McDonalds but have a different theme is different than this becuase this is a wrestler comparing himself to a movie characters that don't have much in common except for the Shark theme.

He's not comparing himself to a movie character, he's saying the people who invented the character of Shark Boy stole his name. His name was trademarked and they ignored it, which is illegal.

I find that even worse. That's like Justin Timberlake coming up to me and suing me because I have the same first name as he does.

[chaychay102royal]

He's not comparing himself to a movie character, he's saying the people who invented the character of Shark Boy stole his name. His name was trademarked and they ignored it, which is illegal.

I find that even worse. That's like Justin Timberlake coming up to me and suing me because I have the same first name as he does.

He can't do that. However, if he wanted his name written in a certain style trademarked, and your handwriting happened to be that exact style he could sue you.