Seems that popular big boy toy company Wicked Lasers has fallen under the dark shadow cast by the boot of Lucasfilm’s legal team.
Their Pro Artic Laser has a hilt shape that harkens to the designs of Star Wars’ lightsabers and Lucas wants them to change it, or pull the product from their catalogue.
“Star Wars” creator George Lucas wants to force a laser company to stop making a new, high-powered product he says looks too much like the famous lightsaber from his classic sci-fi series.
Lucasfilm Ltd. has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Hong Kong-based Wicked Lasers, threatening legal action if it doesn’t change its Pro Arctic Laser series or stop selling it altogether.
The laser device does have a somewhat Lightsaber styling to its case, and I could see the comparison, though its similiar and not exact.
Wicked Laser speculates that Lucas is pursuing this “kind of ridiculous” lawsuit to keep up appearances that he will pursue anyone who treads on his copyrights. And I don’t think that is the motive, but I will never deny a copyright holder the right to pursue. In fact he has a responsibility to protect his product and likeness.
To be fair to Lucas, this product may not be called a lightsaber or intend to infringe, but dozens of tech blogs and review sites have come to that conclusion themselves, outright calling it a lightsaber and commenting the body design makes it look like they want it to be a lightsabre. And how can you look at this and NOT think it looks like a lightsaber??
(Thanks Slushie)
And its a simple fix. They change the body of their popular Pro Artic Laser model to not resemble a lightsabre and no one gets sued. Even if they didn’t intend it, it does look like one and legally that is all he needs to pursue it.
Would Lucas win? That is for the courts to decide. But if it gets to the courts, the product will have to be pulled out of their catalogue until it resolves anyways, so its likely something like this will get settled out of court.
