{"id":447,"date":"2024-04-30T10:25:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/delorean-motor-company-and-nbcuniversal-settle-lawsuit-over-back-to-the-future-car-justia-news-march-27-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T10:25:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:25:24","slug":"delorean-motor-company-and-nbcuniversal-settle-lawsuit-over-back-to-the-future-car-justia-news-march-27-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/delorean-motor-company-and-nbcuniversal-settle-lawsuit-over-back-to-the-future-car-justia-news-march-27-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"DeLorean Motor Company And NBCUniversal Settle Lawsuit Over &#8220;Back To The Future&#8221; Car \u2014 Justia News \u2014 March 27, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, DeLorean Motor Company and NBCUniversal Media settled a trademark lawsuit concerning the licensing of the DeLorean trademark for use in merchandising connected to the \u201cBack to the Future\u201d films.<\/p>\n<p>The DeLorean sports car was produced by John Z. DeLorean and the DeLorean Motor Company in the early 1980s. The car was used as the time machine in the popular \u201cBack to the Future\u201d films and thereafter became well-known to the public. In 1982, the DeLorean Motor Company declared bankruptcy and a holding company acquired the DeLorean Motor Company\u2019s inventory and intellectual property.<\/p>\n<p>Universal Studios, also known as Universal Pictures, entered into an agreement with John DeLorean in 1989 whereby Universal Studios was permitted to use the name and appearance of the car \u201cfor use in \u2018merchandising and commercial tie-ups&#8217;\u201d related to the \u201cBack to the Future\u201d films. Universal Studios agreed to pay John DeLorean \u201cfive percent (5%) of its net receipts from the sale of merchandise and commercial tie-ups (comprising both goods and services) in connection to the <em>Back to the Future<\/em> Films.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1997, the holding company that acquired the DeLorean Motor Company\u2019s inventory and intellectual property filed for bankruptcy. A new company located in Texas, DeLorean Motor Company (not to be confused with the original DeLorean Motor Company) purchased the holding company\u2019s intellectual property along with the holding company\u2019s entire stock of cars, parts, inventory, and other items used in the original factory. The Texas based company supplies parts and services to owners of DeLorean cars. After a couple lawsuits brought by John DeLorean\u2019s surviving wife, Sally DeLorean, in 2014 and 2018, the new DeLorean Motor Company \u201cremains the sole owner of the. . . DeLorean intellectual property and registered trademarks and trade dress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, Universal Studios merged with NBC, creating NBCUniversal. The DeLorean Motor Company alleged that NBCUniversal used its trademark and other intellectual property \u201cin the form of toys, on posters, in videogames, on t-shirts, on lunchboxes, and in other products sold and\/or licensed to third parties by NBCUniversal.\u201d The company alleged that NBCUniversal \u201cfailed to fully pay DMC for such uses per the 1989 agreement. NBCUniversal has not fully paid DMC five percent (5%) of NBCUniversal\u2019s net receipts from merchandising and commercial tie-ups as agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DeLorean Motor Company filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, accounting, and trademark and trade dress infringement against NBCUniversal on December 22, 2022, in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. Although the terms of the settlement remain confidential, attorney Roger Behle, representing DeLorean Motor Company, stated that \u201cyou will continue to see DeLorean cars and trademarks featured in Back to the Future merchandise in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Additional Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/litigation\/nbcuniversal-settles-back-future-delorean-trademark-case-2024-03-27\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NBCUniversal settles \u2018Back to the Future\u2019 DeLorean trademark case<\/a>, <em>Reuters<\/em> (March 27, 2024)<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/dockets.justia.com\/docket\/california\/cacdce\/8:2022cv02189\/869832\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">DeLorean Motor Company v. NBCUniversal Media LLC et al<\/a><\/em> (Case No. 8:2022cv02189)<\/p>\n<p>Complaint in <em>DeLorean Motor Company v. NBCUniversal Media LLC et al<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Credit: <\/strong>Grzegorz Czapski \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\n            var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n            if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n            js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n            js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.11&appId=1639788792774312&autoLogAppEvents=1\";\n            fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n        }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, DeLorean Motor Company and NBCUniversal Media settled a trademark lawsuit concerning the licensing of the DeLorean trademark for use in merchandising connected to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[449,413,445,133,309,303,450,446,447,310,448],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-car","tag-company","tag-delorean","tag-future","tag-justia","tag-lawsuit","tag-march","tag-motor","tag-nbcuniversal","tag-news","tag-settle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}