JayAre Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 In its earlier game catalogs, Atari used the caption "May The Force Be With You" in conjunction with Space War; pic below. Interesting that this catchphrase from Star Wars was used. Apparently, Lucas and co. never took any legal action; I would assume there was some type of copyright related to the phrase. Maybe they never found out about it. Or just didn't care. And Starship used "Beam Me Up, Captain", which sounds like a Star Trek reference. Am I missing something here? Curious to hear what you guys think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atari_Warlord Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 I don't think copyright covers phrases, it's possible it could have been trademarked. Here is an interesting snippet from a legal website: A trademark protects your chosen phrase, but only from another business in your class. Your phrase has to be original. Edit: The Trademark Database has "May the Force be with you" registered 5 times by Lucasfilm starting in 1983. The registrations are all currently dead. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 I'd guess that whoever wrote the manual wasn't well versed in trademark law, or a legal team didn't review the manuals, else they'd have had those statements removed just to prevent a lawsuit. Even if LucasFilm or Paramount had not yet TM'd those statements. Times have changed in the past 40 years! There is a likable amateurish quality, or maybe 'hobbyist' is a better term, to those early Atari manuals. Maybe because it was the 70's though. Not to insult the artist, that's his or her style. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 I tend to remember Lucasfilm and George Lucas himself being very nice with fans getting him free publicity, or put another way; Not being very litigious. Watching the family Guy Star Wars special with him on it, Seth MacFarlane was asking him how he was so cool with it...Sorry I don't remember the response. Point being, Lucas was Not Very corporate (and tended to be against the traditional Hollywood system from the start, shunning the Director's Guild, for instance, as far as where the credits go in a movie etc.) and tended to be cool with getting his universe into pop culture. I even remember when they came across a kid's fan site called Star Wars Fan Club (or something very similar) and they politely told the kid they would need that name but gave him a list of other choices and rules on how to name his website etc.; IIRC, The kid was ecstatic to be talking to them and may have got to speak to George Lucas himself,...I don't remember all the details, but having them wouldn't change my point. I wonder how it will be now that Disney is involved? As far as Paramount, my Guess is that they like a good reference, but there's probably a point where they'd like to license certain things. I once watched a show (I want to say it was on Discovery Channel or History Channel) called How William Shatner Changed The World. I believe the original title was How STAR TREK Changed The World, but Paramount wasn't having it...I still wonder if it could have gotten by with Free Usage laws, but they changed the name to placate Paramount (who acted like they wanted to do their own version of the concept (and that never happened))...By contrast, remember that Futurama episode about Star Trek? I'm guessing that must have been licensed. I'll bet you could get away with using a catch phrase (or something similar but more generic), but if you want to use the Name Star Trek, Paramount's gonna want a "Piece of the Action" (Yeah, S2 Episode 17 reference ha!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayAre Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share Posted December 27, 2019 Great responses, guys. Thanks so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithbk Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 (edited) Compare these similarities... 1978: Boston Don't Look Back Cover 1980: Atari 2600 Space Invaders packaging Three beams of light from a glowing center, city on top, even the landscape... coincidence? Edited December 27, 2019 by keithbk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almightytodd Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 3 hours ago, GoldLeader said: ...Watching the family Guy Star Wars special with him on it, Seth MacFarlane was asking him how he was so cool with it...Sorry I don't remember the response. Point being, Lucas was Not Very corporate (and tended to be against the traditional Hollywood system from the start, shunning the Director's Guild, for instance, as far as where the credits go in a movie etc.) and tended to be cool with getting his universe into pop culture... I believe that parody, even of copyrighted materials, is considered free speech protected by the first amendment. That seems to be the opinion of "Fair Use" for this parody piece: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 On 12/27/2019 at 9:22 PM, keithbk said: Compare these similarities... 1978: Boston Don't Look Back Cover 1980: Atari 2600 Space Invaders packaging Three beams of light from a glowing center, city on top, even the landscape... coincidence? Great catch! No coincidence here IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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