Disney is very protective of its intellectual rights, but sometimes the Mickey Mouse House can seem a bit too rigorous.
Parents in New York have to be a bit careful now in having Star Wars characters attend children's birthday parties, because Disney has just taken action against a party company for dressing up as popular Disney characters from popular films like Frozen and big Disney franchises like Star Wars and Marvel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has just recently filed a lawsuit against New York's Characters for Hire, saying that the company infringed on the Mickey Mouse House's "highly valuable intellectual property rights."
Apparently the studio feels unhappy that the Characters For Hire in New York have "unlicensed and poor-quality appearances and performances," claiming that the company has made poor attempts at altering the names of their characters to distance themselves from those in the actual films.
Characters For Hire changed names like the "Star Wars Storyline" to "Star Battles Storyline," "Darth Vader" to "Dark Lord," and "Chewbacca" to "Big Hairy Guy."
Responding to the studio's claims, the company argues that they did nothing wrong.
"CFH's advertising and promotional materials do not copy, reproduce, distribute or display any of the two-dimensional artwork that is the subject of those copyright registrations. Each of [Disney's trademark] claims fail for essentially the same reason – there is simply no likelihood of confusion that arises from CFH's activities as to the source or sponsorship of the costumed entertainment services that CFH provides."
It's really hard when you face Disney in court, and we wonder what the studio's answer to Characters for Hire will be.
Read: Ron Howard Announces Han Solo's Official Title
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