Bishop Steiner, on 25 July 2015 - 03:17 AM, said:
Relatively sure, given the history of Battletech and HG, that CGL knew this going in. And thus, I highly doubt we would be seeing it at this stage if they had not already planned for that eventuality, or didn't know something we don't know. Like perhaps HG is broke after the Hasbro fiasco? (we can always hope) Or there was some finding or wording in the legalese after the last bout that CGL decided they could exploit.
My guess is because its now no longer HG, but HG and Sony.
HG got into bed with Sony to produce the robotech movie, and I think had to have them come in on SOME of the distribution rights they claim they have to them in order for them to make the movie to begin with. (Because Sony isn't about to make a movie for the sake of someone else.)
This means if they are going to bring a lawsuit against CGL, they will probably have to drag Sony into the Lawsuit as well, and with how Sony pictures has had a string of poorly preforming movies and the Movie production branch coming under greater scrutiny (especially after the embarrassing e-mail hack,) I think the last thing that sony pictures WANTS is to be dragged into a legal dispute for a project that still has yet to enter full production. (They have only licensed it for release, it has not entered production yet.)
So basically, by attaching itself to Sony, HG might have attached itself to a partner wanting to stay FAR away from any legal issues (especially now that they are tied at the hip.) And with Sony being the bigger company, they might not be physically able to play IP bully any more when Sony doesn't want to get dragged into anything for a movie it still hasn't fully backed with. (Hell a lawsuit might make them adverse to even fund the movie further then licensing given that they are now in bed with the franchise.)