The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for Central California found in favor of DC against Mark Towle and Gotham Garage, a custom auto builder who makes and sells replicas of the Batmobile and other classic movie and television cars.
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“As Batman so sagely told Robin, ‘In our well-ordered society, protection of private property is essential.’ Batman: The Penguin Goes Straight, (Greenway Productions television broadcast March 23, 1966)”.
DC had sought a permanent injunction preventing Towle from producing the Batmobile replicas, the destruction of all infringing products and damages of no less than $750,000 for each infringement. George Barris put the original Batmobile for the ABC TV series together for the show.
In the 9th Circuit ruling on Wednesday, Ikuta wrote that DC must prove it owns a copyright in the Batmobile as it appeared in the 1966 TV series and the 1989 movie starring Michael Keaton.
Towle’s attorney, Larry Zerner said that his client copied the car’s design — something that can not be copyrighted. But the 9th Circuit said that was akin to James Bond changing from swimming trunks to a tuxedo: It didn’t alter the car’s innate characteristics.
She wrote, “In addition to its status as ‘a highly-interactive vehicle, equipped with high-tech gadgets and weaponry used to aid Batman in fighting crime, ‘ the Batmobile is nearly always bat-like in appearance, with a bat-themed front end, bat wings extending from the top or back of the auto, exaggerated fenders, a curved windshield and bat emblems on the vehicle”.
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Towle also argued the Batmobile at times appeared without its “bat-like” features. “As a copyrightable character, the Batmobile need not have a consistent appearance in every context, so long as the character has distinctive character traits and attributes”.
