Erasus Magnus, on 18 October 2013 - 02:08 AM, said:
Frankly, FASA started the fight with suing Playmates, a sister company of Harmony Gold.
And those who've fully read the court docs availabe on the 'net know that the court ruled that FASA had valid reasons for suing Playmates toys; and thus were operating in good faith.
In fact, here's what tipped off that lawsuit:
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Up to this point HG didnt seem to be bothered by FASA using "their" Designs.
HG had sent fasa a number of cease and decist letters over the visuals for some while before the PM case. Years before.
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Also, this whole case is a really awkward one, as far as I can judge, because FASA DID aquire the rights for the designs from TCI but HG said TCI did not have the rights for these particular designs.
It is impossible to determine the exact status of TCI's rights to the visuals of the 'mechs in question, because we don't have that documentation.
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FASA originally licensed their varied anime designs from Twentieth Century Imports, who did have the import derivatives rights. When Harmony Gold sued them over the Macross designs, FASA won, ...
Fasa did not win the HG suit OR the playmates case. They didn't loose either of them.
In the FASA v Playmates toys, they didn't get what they wanted from playmates; and playmates in return didn't get their court fees paid by fasa. The only real outcome of the FASA V Playmates toys case was that FASA proved that they had "protectible trade dress" - meaning they had content unique enough to protect in court as far as the visuals were concerned.
In HG v FASA the case was settled out of court and the details of the document are secret to this day.
Fasa DID than remove ALL third party visuals from their lineup simpy to cover their legal ... rumps, as it were. They also got rid of lore units like the fighting urak-hai and such.
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And since in 2002 Big West sued Tatsunoko over the derivative rights issue in Japan and won, if HG try it on again they'll get a proper kicking in court, because their original derivative works license was invalid, and FASA's wasn't.
TCI got their rights from the same place that HG had - tatsunoko. This means that fasa's rights to the visuals were just as illegitmate as HG's.
I believe in the beginning that HG and FASA were both operating in good faith and did honestly believe they had the rights to what they were using.
However, HG has still been running around dropping cease and decists and lawsuits over the visuals EVEN THOUGH it has been shown in japanese court that Tatsunoko does NOT/did NOT have the rights to those visuals.
IMO HG is simply using the threat of court costs to bully everyone in the states over those visuals and I hope they will bully the wrong deep pockets and get properly spanked for their bad behavior.
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