» News
Batman, Turkey Sues Nolan… over Batman
There is a little city in the wonderful country of Turkey called Batman. Serious. No joking there. Batman.
Well this tiny city with a coincidentally cool name has fallen on dark times, and their wonderful idea to rejuvinate its coffers by suing Christopher Nolan.
Yeah, you read that right. Nolan.
“The royalty of the name ‘Batman’ belongs to us … There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us,” [Mayor of Batman city, Hüseyin] Kalkan told the Doğan news agency… Mayor Kalkan, speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News and the Economic Review, said last year foreign media picked up on Batman and the city’s increasing suicide rates among women. He said a columnist asked why Batman’s mayor did not sue the movie Batman for royalties while struggling with economic problems. “We found this criticism right and started to look for legal possibilities of a case like that,” he said.And so, Kalkan plans to sue not DC Comics, who own the character, nor Warner Bros., who own DC Comics, but Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight.
Aside from pointing the gun at the wrong man, this is utterly rediculous.
Batman (the franchise) has been enjoying a success financially for decades. Invented by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger in 1939 (enjoying its 70th anniversary next year) you would think that the connection between the unauthorized use of their name would be challenged before this.
Oh I know, it has hit its hieght of phenomenal succesess, and you should pluck the fruit when its ripe. But honestly Nolan is the last person to be considered at fault for the use of the name.
I laugh deliberately and bluntly in the face of this legal action. And I use “legal” loosely. Even if this farce of an accusation was aimed at the proper violators of the term, this desperate attempt to snatch up a pile of cash is weaker than my own claims to virginity.
That and with such casual acceptance of blatant copyright violations, like Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam known more commonly as “Turkish Star Wars” because it actually uses clips stolen right out of Star Wars and other films with a completely unoriginal and stolen soundtrack lifted from various popular North American Films.
So with their own loose copyright laws, do they really have any moral ground to assume that the similarities with a small Turkish city and a man who dresses like a bat calling himself Batman gaining popularity over just shy of 70 years would have any grounds?
Laughable.
If anything their efforts give me a little giggle at their own desperate expense.
He even didnt use Batman in the films title this time. very funny
Hey Rodney, I love your thoughts. I just wanted to point out something real quick.
I also wrote about this on my blog and I noticed a certain detail towards the end of the hurriyet article which this story originated
“But Batman Çağdaş newspaper reported that Şafii Dağ, a former Batman resident, currently living in the Germany city of Wesel, is one of those citizens who cannot use Batman as a title for his business, according to the newspaper. “I named my two restaurants Batman. But six months ago, a team of employees from the production company of the movie Batman made me change the title. Telling them that Batman was the name of my hometown did not change anything,” Dağ said.”
So, I think there is more to this story than small town sues the wrong guy. More like small town was provoke by movie production and they decided to fight back (in all the wrong ways). I agree they are suing the wrong guy but there is more to this story.
Thanks!
Batman, first published in 1939. Long shot, but if Batman the town was named AFTER that, I wonder if DC might try to counter-sue (assuming the town realises it’s suing the wrong person and goes after DC instead).
And frankly, can a town hold copyright over it’s own name? Especially since the actual town was never referenced. Can New York now sue Warner Bros (or Zach Snyder…) for the use of Dr Manhattan in the new Watchmen movie?
International Copyright belongs to the person/organization who establishes it (or owns it in course) regardless of who or why someone else would lay claim to it.
The guy getting sued for using Batman (even though its just the name of his hometown) still doesn’t entitle him to use it because it is an established trademark and copyright that belongs to DC comics.
The name of a city cannot be copyright, or the city of Chicago should sue the band, the musical, and movie. So Batman, copyright of DC Comics, is the rightful owner despite anything the city of Batman has to say about it.
There is a little to this story. And despite what prompted them to move on this silly legal accusation, it still has no grounds.
Rightly, if they wanted to sue DC for the use of the name they should sue the former resident for using it as a restaurant name too.
watch out captain america!
omg this is freakin lame, sueing Nolan, im pissed off, have they ever heard of the character batman?
Okay, I’m assuming they don’t speak English in Turkey. So how the hell did they manage to name a town “Batman”?
It’s time to turn to the knowledge of….
WIKIPEDIA!
“Batman (short for Batı Raman Mountains) is the provincial capital of Batman Province, Turkey, also known as Êlih[1] or Iluh in Kurdish, is a city on the Batman River in the predominantly Kurdish[2][3] southeast of Turkey.”
Okay, that kind of makes sense.
I hope Nolan retains a lawyer named Alfred. That would rock.
There is a town in Australia also called ‘Batman’. No doubt there is plenty of business’ there using the name also.
Should we point them in that direction, perhaps they can sue all the inhabitants there?
This is to funny.
WTF!?!!
It’s just a publicity stunt to attract people to their little town. It’ll get tossed…
@Aaron, read the article.
They were well aware of the similarities of the name. Its just now with the town in dire straits, combined with the popularity of the franchise, they need the publicity this scam will bring, or maybe they are dumb enough to think it might get a settlement.
shit man…we have a street called ‘batman’ here in Melbourne…maybe we should sue?
…eh? EH?!
Are they SERIOUS?
Oh those crazy Turks!
I think it is small minded to use this article to form an opinion on Turkey and its people. As has been said above it’s probably a publicity stunt.
Also…
io9.com’s headline for this story is awesome!
“Batman Sues Christopher Nolan Over Success Of Dark Knight”
Wow, that is ridiculous
so they couldnt sue back in the 1930s or 1989
No one was using this article to form an opinion on the people of Turkey.
The only opinions expressed here is that this lawsuit is retarded, and the makers of that other film mentioned obviously have no respect for copyright, so why would the law side with the city of Batman.
I don’t know if I’m just way behind of everyone else but I just noticed that if you put an “E” after the T in that sign and name in general you get……anybody?!…..
WFT!?
The right person to sue is Michael Keaton because he was the first
batman, damn, what a bunch of idiots…
Apparently in Turkey, they were unaware of the success of this franchise starting theatrically since 89….as well as Adam West’s TV show years earlier…This move is dumber than…ah fuck it…this is really dumb.
@ HAZMAT_eats_babies
“watch out captain america!”
LMAO!!! :)
Why so serious, Turkey?
This is honestly retarded. One, Nolan didn’t create Batman, Bob Kane did. Second, the guy who made Batman probably never HEARD of the place, so therefore he wasn’t stealing the name of some place. Turkey, fuck you, Batman the superhero rules
im tellin you what, dragon slayer and I agree 100% on everything lol.
he spoke for me
and if there’s a town called “Hulk”, they’ll probably try to sue Marvel lol
my pet turkey is feeling very left out in all this $$$ talk.
Sometimes… people go and do something so stupid, it makes you both scared and a little sad that you share the same planet with them.
ok lets be honest….its fricken turkey……hahahha
i have a picture of stephen lopez (taekwondo) kicking the crap out of someone from turkey in the gold medal match at the 2000 olympics…all you see is the guy flying and on the back of his ass it says T U R K E Y.
HAHA but i understand what its like to have no food….sue there ass hahaha!
NEWS FLASH:
New York sues John Carpenter.
I think the Jolly Green Giant should sue Edward Norton for the Hulk being green. Obvious infringements there. :D
hey thats a good point^^^^
im sure that TURKEY sueing batman for taking their small towns name is kinda…not the best choice. hence they could have just sued basically every single turkey food factory and made millions of yen
that makes no sence…like jacking off a corpse…
@ bobsyeruncle:
Actually he should hire a lawyer named Harvey. :P
This is the funniest news story I’ve seen in a long, long time.
M@TT, yeah lol then Harvey will flip a coin for every person that sued Nolan
All this got me thinking.
The Rocky Mountains/ Rocky Mountain National Park.
Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Hmmm…
There’s a guy where I come from, his legal name is Batman. And get this, his dad’s name in Supirman. Supirman, is a common name for a guy in my country. So as a joke, when this dude got a son, he decided to name him Batman.
I swear to Go, I did not make this shit up..
This is the only update of the past two days? What’s going on at this site?
What’s going on with Livevideo: UNCUT?
I am told there will be no episode tonight.
Was any reason given? Will there be one tomorrow, and what about Doug’s show?
Will the The Movie Blog be updated?
There will be a couple new posts shortly… the rest will have to wait.
There will be a couple new posts shortly… the rest will have to wait for updates.
According to John’s Facebook, hes in the middle of a move
You’ll be posting them Rodney?
Yes, just did. And yeah, John is moving today.
Great! That bastard deserves to pay, after that terrible third act with the sonar and the boats. Go, Turkey!!! Actually, hold on, what? Is the mayor of Batman,Turkey retarded?
Barry, the third act in the dark knight ruled, ok?
Barry, the third act in the dark knight ruled, ok!
I can’t believe this thread had garnered over 50 responses…
I swear if Scott toilet paper put the fricken batman logo on their product they would have people standing in line…
Batman is the male version of Twilight…
Twilight is a dumb emo movie. Batman isnt dude, get your facts straight!
I think 790 was just comparing the draw of Twilight for girls is much like the inescapable draw of Batman for guys.
He wasn’t saying Twilight was like Batman.
First off: NEVER COMPARE BATMAN TO TWILIGHT! DO IT AGAIN AND SO HELP ME I WILL TRACK YOU DOWN AND KILL YOU IN COLD BLOOD!!!!!!
(Well, not really, I’m just exaggerating, but never compare Batman to Twilight)
Second: Who the hell names their city Batman?
You make it sound like they named the city after Batman the character.
Clearly in Turkey the words mean different things than you want to use them for.
There is a town called Elbow in Saskatchewan.. no one questions that.
@Dragonslayer, you might want to read the comments before you go flipping out on some commenter for something he didnt do. He said Batman is to boys like Twilight is to girls. He was not equating the two to each other.
we actually just studied this in marketing class. if the town was called McTown, mcdonald’s could legally sue them.
@Mike, I question the education that you are receiving. It is not legal for McDonalds to sue a McTown. Nor would it be legal for McDonalds to sue me if I decided to open a burgerchain called McRodney’s .
Their copyright and trademark cannot extend to obscure similarities. If it could then anything Scottish would instantly be a target for them to sue for having a Mc in the name.
City and Town names are not subject to copyright, nor do they hold copyright to stop others from using the name.
Your teacher is incorrect, or you misunderstood.
you can only sue something if youre coca cola or “i cant believe its not butter” because its not a common name.
but you cant sue people if youre the singer “seal” or if youre the movie “hercules” becaouse those names are used all the time…like if a company was named “water”….they cant just own..”water”
but if its “mountain dew” then its a diferent story because thats a name no one ever uses unless talking about the drink
batman cant fucking be sued.
McRodneys.
There must be a bunch of really pissed off birds out there that want to sue the country for being called Turkey.