Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla
Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event (1) hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters (2). Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
“Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars,” Reuters quoted Wu as saying. “Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business.”
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon’s claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down (3) a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit (4), Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”
Nick Godt has covered global business news on three continents for over 25 years.
The 540bhp Renault 5 Turbo 3E retro release is just the first of the cool classics incoming
The new Renault 5 Turbo 3E, with its 540bhp, is not going to be the only mini-supercar with a retro punch from the French manufacturer.
While this “hyper-hatch” is a limited run offering, Renault’s group design chief Lauren van den Acker said there is “a window of opportunity” for more retro revivals like this beauty.
With Google Gemini, Android Auto could make your drive safer, more enjoyable
Google is in the process of rolling out Android Auto 14.0 to the public. While the update doesn’t include any new features, it suggests a significant change is coming.
As 9to5Google explains, the update hints that Gemini is set to replace Google Assistant in Android Auto. Behind the scenes, there are also image assets for Gemini and Gemini Live.
Aston Martin just revealed its most powerful production car ever
The new Aston Martin Vanquish Volante has been revealed as the most powerful production car to date.
While the looks of this tarmac eating beauty may justify its price alone, the 824bhp under the hood certainly helps too.
