Tuesday, August 22, 2017

More News on the Harmony Gold Lawsuit

"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts."

Londo Mollari, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" Babylon 5

Yep, it seems as if Harmony Gold (hereafter referred to as HG) must have a ton of money for copyright attorneys, as they are suing someone else in a copyright infringement lawsuit. This time, they're suing Tatsunoko Productions, the guys that sold Harmony Gold the rights to the images for Macross that made Robotech possible. 

According the to the referenced article, it seems the rights to those images were not Tastunoko's to sell in the first place, but instead with another outfit, Studio Nue, and that HG's rights were distribution of the Robotech/Macross cartoons in North America. 

Court documents have been filed as of last week, and according to Sarna.net, it seems that this is more of an arbitration case, but there are no details as of yet. How this turns out, noone knows. Anything could happen at this point.

But, if I may give my three cents? It's pretty clear HG has gotten quite lawsuit happy, and is clearing the legal decks for something, the live action Robotech movie we hear so much about seems to be the leading possibility in my opinion, but it could be other projects? Whatever happens, the fact that the are willing to arbitrate rather than go before a jury suggests even HG knows that their case might be weaker, or that they are looking towards a long fight with the Piranha Games/IMR/HBS suit.

Either way, it does seem like it's pretty silly to pick two or three lawsuits at the same time. I suspect this may not play overly well with a jury, assuming the judge allows this into evidence.

So, to be continued folks.  

2 comments:

  1. The arbitration AFAIK has ended.

    HG won. They effectively own RT outside Japan....

    BUT only until March 2021.
    AND they don't own the copyrights for the 41 original characters, a list which includes the Veritechs and Destroids

    How this affects their case though.....

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    Replies
    1. Well this just complicates things all over, doesn't it?

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