The Mary Sue is reporting that German luggage maker Rimowa GmbH is suing Marvel for mass-producing it's briefcase design for their Phase One blu-ray set without their permission.
I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t mess with Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. but a German luggage company is about to step up to the main man in a big way. The company, Rimowa GmbH, is suing Marvel and owner Disney’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Why? See that magnificent DVD case above? That’s one of Rimowa GmbH’s designs. We know that for sure because they allowed Marvel to let Samuel L. Jackson carry it in The Avengers. What they didn’t do was allow Marvel to mass produce and sell it. Oops.
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Rimowa says they have no problem with how their Topas attaché case was used in The Avengers, they gave permission for that. ”However, Marvel did not obtain any license or authorization from Rimowa to make replica copies of the cases for any purpose,” says the plaintiff in the new lawsuit. Marvel is currently advertising and taking pre-orders for this set they call Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One — Avengers Assembled Box Set. We previously showed you the stylized art that is meant to go along with each of the included films.
“Images of the replica briefcase on Marvel’s advertising materials, and fan video from Marvel’s product display at this year’s Comic-Con convention, show the plastic ‘replica case’ to be a close copy of Rimowa’s Topas attaché case in every respect but quality,” states the complaint from Rimowa, “from the proportions and coloring, to the style of the handle and latches, and, of course, in the use of the trademarked parallel ridges around the body of the case.”
I wouldn't take Disney as ones for committing blatant copyright infringement, or for their lawyers to let something like this slip by...
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