The Velvet Underground (2021)

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Mattel tried suing the Swedish band Aqua for their song and music video Barbie Girl and got laughed out of court, since it was protected parody. I would think the same would happen here and I would hope Mattel wouldn't be stupid enough to try that lawsuit again. Their threats about this film came before their disastrous Aqua lawsuit.

Even granting that a parody defense would be ultimately successful (which I don't think is as clear cut as the Barbie Girl case -- it would be an interesting ruling to see, I think it would hold up but I would be interested in seeing the legal thought behind it), trademark law would practically require Mattel to go through the motions in court, because companies must rigorously defend their trademarks from all possible infringement at the risk of losing them. So even if "Superstar" would ultimately win, they'd still have to go to the trouble of paying lawyers fees for a long drawn out process, especially if they tried to market the film around the release of the official "Barbie" movie.

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I agree, the songs are the issue. The movie doesn't just use the compositions, which could be licensed from whatever label owns them, it uses the original recordings, which are integral to the film. I suspect Richard Carpenter would sooner burn the master tapes than grant the rights to them to be legally used in this film.

There's also the question of "life rights" or whatever the correct term would be; although they could argue "public figures", the fact that they tried to get the rights to their life story and were denied it wouldn't be good for them. I definitely agree that the Carpenters have the much stronger grounds to stop a release, but on the other hand, Mattel has a lot more money and would have an interest in at least delaying a release, even if it was only temporary.