As you may or may not be aware, Batman is not only the name of a DC Comics superhero -- it is also the name of a city in Turkey:
Well guess what?Now the mayor of Batman, Turkey, Hüseyin Kalkan, is planning to sue for royalties owed to the city of Batman by the makers of "Batman." Specifically, he is going to sue "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan. Because as we all know, Hollywood is where all the money is.
According to Kalkan:
“The royalty of the name ‘Batman’ belongs to us … There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us...”
While this proposed lawsuit sounds a bit extreme, Kalkan brings up an interesting point. Can or can not people use the Batman name for shops and restaurants and products -- as long as they mean Batman, Turkey?
According to the Hurriyet Daily News:
Şafii Dağ, a former Batman resident, currently living in the Germany city of Wesel, is one of those citizens who cannot use Batman as a title for his business, according to the newspaper. “I named my two restaurants Batman. But six months ago, a team of employees from the production company of the movie Batman made me change the title. Telling them that Batman was the name of my hometown did not change anything,” Dağ said.
Paging Jeff Trexler...Via io9
Hahaha.
ReplyDeleteIs this not a joke??
Was it named Batman in '39?
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuit is a joke, but DC going after the shop owner was wrong. So long as he doesn't try to associate his store with the DC comics character he should have no problems.
ReplyDeleteThis suit is a joke, but to answer your question about the use of Batman as a trademark, that issue is going to be fact-specific. For example, it would depend on how world-wide knowledge is of DC's Batman TM.
ReplyDeleteEven if there is no consumer confusion about sponsorship, DC could have a legitimate claim under Dilution laws, altough I am unsure how universal those laws ae, or how they would be interpreted in Germany.
Also, with regard to the town using Batman as a trademark, simple geographic location names are not protectable for products that come from those areas. It would have to involve some level of fancy to be protectable as a TM.
what a history!!
ReplyDeleteThis is where a simple hyphen would really come in handy.
ReplyDeleteHow did that lawsuit between Spiderman, Egypt and Marvel come out, by the way?
Melbourne, Australia, was nearly called "Batmania" after its founder, John Batman. There's still assorted places in the city called "Batman".
ReplyDeleteAssuming the mayor is serious, this threatened lawsuit has distinct echoes of a lawsuit in Greece, in which residents of Lesbos sued the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece for inappropriately using the island's geographic designation.
ReplyDeleteLesbos lost that suit and if the Turkish Batman suit is filed, its likelihood of success is pretty much nil, assuming a local court actually follows the law. Batman does not appear to have registered a Batman mark or filed a timely challenge to DC's original registration, nor does the Turkish Batman seem to be a geographical indication of area goods.
The story is tragic in a way, since you have a town in desperate need making a desperate move. It's one of those stories where a little knowledge of the law is a dangerous thing, and I'd hate to see the town waste precious resources on a quixotic quest.
A quick Google Maps search for "Batman" returned only this town, which apparently didn't get its current name until 1957. Since there aren't any other towns they'd be passing over, there might be an opportunity here for the producers to generate equally viral PR by allocating some of their charitable budget to an initiative in Batman. Still, that too could be controversial & hard to administer, given ethnic tensions in the region.
When I lived in Washington, DC, in the mid90s, there was a gay bar called the Green Lantern.
ReplyDeleteAnd we have all seen pictures of Barack Obama in Metropolis, Illinois, which precedes Superman, and which has a nice relationship with DC Comics.
If this suit is valid, then DC is vulnerable to a multitude of "gotham" lawsuits from New York area businesses.
Turkey's attempt to separate the town from the character by adding "Goddamn" before the city's name was foiled by one Frank Miller.
ReplyDeleteI recall some people with the last name of Batman in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia about 30 years ago. None of them wore capes, were related to Bob Kane or Bill Finger, or sought royalties from DC Comics.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough there's an area in Australia called Batman.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Batman
I only knew about this because the same day this story broke, I noticed this at my job as the home of one of our district officers. :)
Wow, I never heard this story before, being from Turkey. Is this for real??
ReplyDelete