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Warner Bros. to fan: No Harry Potter dinners for you!
Ms. Marmite Lover (how's that for an improbable name?) owns and operates The Underground Restaurant from her home in London. She had planned on hosting a Harry Potter-themed Halloween party complete with a journey down Diagon Alley, a password given by attendees to the Fat Lady to gain entrance and a meal befitting any Hogwart's witch or wizard (butterbeer included).
But all of that came to an abrupt end when she received a note from Warner Brothers' lawyers claiming she was infringing on their rights.
According to The Guardian, Warner Brothers warned her that they own all things Harry Potter, including "name, stylised logo, the name of the characters, themes, incidents and other associated indicia from the series of ... books and films." The letter Ms. Lover received stated:
"Dear Ms Marmite Lover. While we are delighted you are such a fan of the Harry Potter series, unfortunately your proposed use of the Harry Potter properties ... without our consent would amount to an infringement of Warner's rights."Ms. Lover responded: "I understand that you need to protect the rights but this is two dinners, one-offs, from which I am not making a profit, inspired by the books and the mentions of food in them. My daughter is a huge fan, even an obsessive."
She has since renamed the evening "Generic Wizard Night," a recommendation from Warner Brothers.
Previously Ms. Lover hosted an evening at The Underground Restaurant whose theme centered around another corporate/trademarked product, Marmite, (coinciding with her own name). Every dish included Marmite. How did Unilever Bestfoods UK Ltd., owners of Marmite, respond? Did they send ninja-lawyers armed with cease-and-desist notices? No. They were pleased. So much so that the company provided her with a stockpile of Marmite. For free.
Warner Brothers is certainly within their legal rights, but they could learn a thing or two about having fun and fandom from the makers of Marmite.
By QuantumSam at 10:14 AM ON 10/29/09
I thought J.K. Rowling owned most of that. Warner should only own the film related stuff.
By loganschlieghliegh at 10:30 AM ON 10/29/09
Way to go, WB! What's next? You going to send lawyers after every kid this Halloween that is dressed up as some character from the Harry Potter books? You may own rights to the films but what this lady is doing doesn't encompass them. Last time anyone checked the rights to all Potter is still owned by JK. I wonder what she would think about all this?
By Necronomic Recovery at 10:48 AM ON 10/29/09
She should have just gone with a Worst Witch themed evening. They're basically the same thing.
By K'Rik at 12:32 PM ON 10/29/09
There was a boycott of all things WB a while back when they went after a 15 year old girl and her website called the Daily Prophet. They only backed off when they found out she had a terminal disease.
WB is evil, pure and simple.
By John W. Kennedy at 1:22 PM ON 10/29/09
Don't blame WB. It's the old legal catch; if you don't defend your trademark, you lose it. Once they heard about this, they were legally bound to act.
The Marmite thing was different. As a restaurant actually serving Marmite, it was covered.
As to kids on Halloween, some of them will be wearing licensed costumes, and they're covered. As to kids that make their own, technically, they are encroaching on WB's property, but as long as no one can point to any one particular kid and prove that WB specifically knew about him and did nothing, WB's covered.
That's just how the law is. If you want to keep your trademark, you have to be prepared to prove at any time that you're zealously guarding it. If you can't -- pffft!
As to the PotterWar episode (which took place over about six months in 2001, and you've got the details all wrong), yes, WB behaved foolishly, and out of character, to boot, since they had never acted that way over "Babylon 5". It appears that just about every Hollywood studio, at some point in its history, suddenly discovered that there was this weird, alien thing called the Internet, and had a panic attack. Viacom did the same thing with "Star Trek" back in 1997. Eventually, they decided that, as long as there was no actual piracy involved, their worries were misplaced; talking about a trademark isn't the same thing as abusing it.
By Emie at 2:15 PM ON 10/29/09
When HP7 came out a bookstore in Minnesota arranged for a train ride ending at midnight with distribution of the book. They got their hands slapped because they were charging a little bit to off-set the price of evening.
These people really need to get a grip!
By Matt25 at 9:56 PM ON 10/29/09
Give me a break, WB won't even let people host a Harry Potter dinner? Typical corporate behavior, they have no souls.
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