The legal beagles at the firms who hold all the rights to the Bond series of movies, have gotten a cease-and-desist order from a film industry panel against the producers of the Austin Powers film for their use of the title Goldmember, a take-off on the Bond title Goldfinger. As a result, the Powers crew are scrambling for a new name — and scrambling to snatch up any Goldmember promotional materials (here’s your chance for a collector’s item, kids).
Mixed feelings here. Frankly, I thought the first AP film was humorous, and the second overkill. The third …?
On the other hand, this is satire, folks. The MGM/Danjaq folks didn’t object to The Spy Who Shagged Me (vs the Bond The Spy Who Loved Me), even though that one ran into legal troubles in countries where “shag” is a much more improper term. I’m curious that the plaintiffs went to the MPAA board, rather than to court, too — is that traditional with these sorts of disputes, or did they think they’d face less of a burden in their case against New Line there?
MGM and Danjaq have every right to protect the value of their property. On the other hand, I think maybe this can also be thought of as overkill.
(Via NextDraft)
As you say, it’s satire. I hope the judge throws them out of his courtroom. Of course, there’s too much potential money involved for common sense to have any voice.
I heard that they did have an issue with The Spy Who Shagged Me but didn’t push it quite as far. Perhaps this was a result of “We let it slide last time, but we’re not going to let you do it again.” Trademarks are weird to companies. The companies don’t want others using or spoofing their trademarks for fear of diluting their product. I would have thought, “Hey, cool, free advertising.” I wonder if they would feel differently if they got a share of the profits.