If you want to teach people how to fight with a lightsaber, you had better get Disney’s permission first. A man by the name ofMichael Brownis learning that the hard way. Lucasfilm, which Disney owns, has recently filed a lawsuit againstMichael Brown, who owns the stage combat training school TheLightsaber Academy, for usingStar Warstrademarks without permission.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Lucasfilm has sentMichael Brownseveral notices to cease using the trademarks without permission, but that failed to do the trick. He owns several businesses including The Lightsaber Academy, Thrills and Skills as well as New York Jedi that teach interestedStar Wars fansthe ways of the Jedi. Lucasfilm clearly doesn’t like these business cashing in on their good name, soMichael Brownis now being sued for millions of dollars. Here is some of the official complaint that was filed.
“Defendants regularly use the Lucasfilm Trademarks without authorization in connection with their businesses. Among other infringing activities, Defendants use a logo that is nearly identical, and confusingly similar, to Lucasfilm’s trademark Jedi Order logo… round in shape, with six wing-like shapes curving upward (three per side), and an eight-pointed star featuring elongated top and bottom points stretched into a vertical line.”
The services offered by these businesses can be found at lightsaberacademy.com, and the logo appears to be identical to the classic Jedi Order logo, so it is fairly understandable why Lucasfilm isn’t happy about the situation. Lucasfilm has a long history of embracing fan art and representations of theStar Warsbrand, but the common thread is that these creations from the fan community tend not to be a legitimate for-profit business. In this case, places like The Lightsaber Academy appear to essentially be teaching stage combat, but usingStar Wars languageand imagery to draw in customers.
Disney purchased all of Lucasfilm back in 2012 for more than $4 billion and has been doing just about everything they can to profit from theStar Warsname, seemingly for the benefit of fans. There is an obsessive team in place to make sure that theStar Wars brandis being used in ways that align with the Disney and Lucasfilm’s larger plans, so something like this wasn’t likely to go unnoticed. A fan film is one thing, but several schools claiming to teach people the ways of the Jedi in an unofficial capacity is another.
According to THR,Michael Brownhas yet to comment on the matter, but he did file a trademark application for “LightsaberAcademy, Inc.” At the moment, he could be facing up to $2 million in damages for eachStar Warstrademark that was infringed upon. Given the apparent lack of permission and Disney’s very deep pockets, it seems hard to believe thatMichael Brownand The Jedi Academy are going to come out of the lawsuit on top.
