What should we do if we create a blockbuster movie which hits every theatre in the world hard?

Besides registering trademarks, copyrighting almost every substantial elements in the movie, and putting down scripts for every scene? 

What would you do if you were James Camerons of Avatar? Oh wow! You heard me, and I didn’t mention any avatar or your Facebook picture.  I am talking about The Avatar – the fantasy movie or my most beautiful dream wrapped in three hour’s screen. 

Avatar part 1 was one of the few movies that wrapped itself around intellectual property. It has too many potential aspects, which can grow into a whole asset. So the IP team of James and Twentieth Century Fox Film worked day and night to ensure that they registered all valuable elements of the movie before it aired and also to defend themselves when the infringement claim came, which they did from 2010-2015.

In 2015, British artist William Roger Dean, who was known primarily for album art featuring fantastical landscapes, accused James Cameron and Avatar’s team of lifting visual elements from his painting and putting them into Avatar; in which those elements became the most famous scene of Pandora: Avatar‘s Hallelujah Mountains (Floating mountain). He also submitted other evidence of copyright infringement to show that James Camerons copied illustrations of flying creatures from his other paintings. 

(Floating mountain in Avatar)

However, a federal judge threw out this lawsuit. The initial complaint, which asked for $50 million in damages, alleged that “the similarities of each such work are substantial, continuing, and direct so as to rule out any accidental copying or similarity in scenes common to the genre,”. Moreover, William Roger Dean stated that the Avatar team’s maker must use his painting as references, which could be with or without Jame’s knowledge. However, intentionally or not, James still infringed his artwork, Dean said. 

Unfortunately for Dean, US district judge Jesse M. Furman threw the case out with the clear statement, “The works are indisputably similar insofar as they present the natural world in a fantastical way by depicting airborne land masses, But the plaintiff does not have a monopoly on the idea of floating or airborne land, an idea that has been around since at least 1726 when Jonathan Swift published his classic Gulliver’s Travels”. He additionally added the Dean’s claim was “plainly misguided”. 

(Floating mountain in Gulliver’s Travels)

Behind the scene, the IP world whispered that James Cameron with his IP team had foreseen these infringements and, therefore, they were cautious in all settings, elements, clothes, and images…that were used in Avatar. 

The company Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation owned the AVATAR trademark, which is currently used in all film-related products and promotions. Since Avatar Part 2 is coming this way, we need to remind ourselves of the value of IP in the blockbuster movie; the IP assets have kept generating money for Jame Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation even though the first part of the movie was released ten years ago. There will be more infringement claims for Avatar as flies come for the Apple Pie; however, with solid registration and defence, Avatar can maintain its enormous profit and its status as the most creative movie of this century. 

Image sources: Pinterest, news.artnet.com

Information sources: https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20140918b42

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