Story Archive

Spoiler Alert

In the 2012 Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, Catwoman tries to obtain computer software called “the clean slate,” which in the movie’s world could erase all records of her criminal past in every court data base. The software is obviously fictitious, but there really is software called “Clean Slate” — which of course has nothing to do with destroying official court records. Still, the company that publishes the real software sued Warner Bros. Entertainment, claiming trademark infringement and “unfair competition.” When the suit was thrown out, software publisher Fortres Grand appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has thrown it out again, ruling the District Court was correct in its ruling that consumers could not possibly be confused that the software in the movie is the same as the different software sold in real life, or think that their software was published by Warner Bros. (RC/Washington Post) ...Or to put it another way, the real-life publisher’s lawyer’s legal theories were also fiction.