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Guess who is suing Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan, the director of the hugely popular The Dark Knight movie, for trademark infringement claiming the word Batman was used without permission? Have you heard of a Kurdish town in Turkey named Batman?
Yep, the mayor of Batman, Turkey claims Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan owe royalties to the town for using the Batman name illegally. It seems the mayor can prove that the town of Batman, Turkey was founded before the Batman character appeared in DC Comics in 1939, but for some reason, the lawsuit is just getting underway now. Hmmm…
But that’s not all there is to this story! According to Variety (by way of The Register), the mayor of Batman, Turkey also blames The Dark Knight for, “a number of unsolved murders along with the town’s female suicide rate on the psychological impact the film’s success had on Batman residents.”
I think it might be best if I just leave it at that. Anyone else want to comment on this one?
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Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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That’s hilarious. I imagine that this case will be thrown out immediately. Names of towns, in and of themselves, cannot be trademarked where there is no product or service being provided under said name. In order to establishing trademark rights, something must be sold or marketed under that name.
Can you say frivolous lawsuit? I can’t imagine this would go anywhere. I know, I would like to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of all bats because of the resurgence of chiroptophobia (fear of bats, and yes, I had to look that up) caused by these movies. Any lawyers out there want a piece of the action? Come on, you know you do!