The Velvet Underground (2021)

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

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.

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.

Yep, the Carpenters are/were huge public figures. After the (rightful) failure of Olivia de Havilland's lawsuit against Fox and the miniseries "Feud," I think any lawyer would be wisely reluctant to take on a lawsuit they're bound to lose about life rights for a film about a major public figure.

It's true, Superstar isn't as direct a parody of the Barbie product as the Aqua song, but it still uses the toy for ironic social commentary. I would think a good lawyer could successfully argue that. You're right, though, whether such a case went to court would depend on how litigious Mattel is.

If Mattel were smart, they'd just stay silent about it, the way Disney did with that movie Escape from Tomorrow, which was secretly filmed inside Disney World without permission. Disney didn't sue, undoubtedly because they recognized the risk of the Streisand Effect and didn't want to draw more attention to the film.