Lucasfilm Loses Appeal Over Stormtrooper Copyright
It seems that the Lucasfilm lawsuit against the Stormtrooper creator, Andrew Ainsworth, is over, for now anyway.
Readers may remember that Lucasfilm first sued Ainsworth in a U.S. court and won a $20 million judgment. When Lucasfilm tried to enforce its case in Britain they lost and then appealed to the UK court of appeals. Yesterday, the UK court of appeals agreed with the lower UK court and ruled that the Stormtrooper models were not sculptures and thus not protected under UK copyright law. Instead, the Lord Justices ruled that the models were industrial designs, protectable for only 15 years. Lucasfilm plans on appealing to Britain’s new Supreme Court.