[stray]

Originally Posted by Zinjo

That will depend on how big a hit MF is in Japan and possibly by how many overseas orders of the first Bluray Discs there are as indicators of its popularity here. The sticking point is the name. HG successfully TM'd the name in early 2003 after about 4 years of a mexican stand off with BW at the trademarks office. The 25th anniversary merchandise sales to foreign markets may play a large role in future TM challenges as well. With the internet downloads of MF giving the franchise sufficient exposure, it may prompt BW to challenge the TM as IP rights holders. The best test bed for this would be in the Canadian Trademarks Tribunal who generally favor the IP rights holder over all others. This would provide a satellite office the ability to distribute to the North American market if a US court challenge is either too expensive or unsuccessful.
The impression I tend to get from BW is that it is afraid of loosing and thus either incurring an expensive long term lawsuit or loosing what grey area rights they have in the North American market. In the age of successful IP rights challenges this seems a bit irrational, but then again so is fear...

Originally Posted by 4Tran

While this may yet be the subject of a legal challenge, I can't see how Harmony Gold has a legal leg to stand on since all of their rights were purchased from Tatsunoko, and Tatsunoko was ruled to not have the right to sell off the trademark. The expense and trouble of any potential lawsuit would still be a major impedement towards any such move though.
I get the feeling that it's more a combination of Big West being unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the American legal system, and that they're not really sure what they want to do with Macross in North America.

I wouldn’t be that surprised if Bandai announces they licensed Macross Frontier at either AX or Comic-Con. Although, it’s starting to get to the point where music licensing might be tricky, depending on how music rights are handled between Flying Dog/Bandai/Big West.

The only real legal leg HG has to stand on is the Macross TM, and even then it’s kind of hazy. The whole case kind of reminds me of what happened with (ah, the nerd card…) SCO v. Novell a year or so ago, the gist of which was that SCO claimed full ownership (of UNIX) over a poorly worded contract that it was shown never gave them anything more than licensing rights. Granted, BW/HG is a different animal, but I could see the result being more or less the same.

I think the biggest hold up to this point with regard to BW taking any action was simply the fact that a. they had no licensors and b. until Frontier, they really didn’t have anything to license. Zero took, what, 2.5 years to make? AFAIK it wasn’t a huge success, and the whole episode 4 to episode 5 transition reeks of cancellation. By the time they established their rights in 2002 it was already 7-8 years past Macross 7’s run, and it’s kind of questionable how it would have done in the west, considering both it’s age and it’s content.

Regardless, it’s kind of a catch-22 right now; the anime industry in the US on the whole is in the crapper, but something like Frontier has namesake (that’s dwindling), and a real chance of being a crossover hit (IMO) should it get picked up on Sci-Fi or Adult Swim. The killer being that, whoever licenses it has to take the risk of incurring a lawsuit by Harmony Gold.

If WB and Maguire are set on using Macross as the basis for the movie then they will have to deal directly with BW and most likely HG will NOT be allowed in the negotiations or directly profit from the Macross property. Had they stayed quietly on the fence during Japanese the court battle BW might be willing to deal with them, but since they sided with Tatsunoko, they are considered a common enemy.

It is not uncommon for a studio to shelve a project for years. So long as they continue to pay Frank Agrama for the option of making a movie he won't push it either. If WB is determined to make the film based on Macross they will have to gain the option from BW themselves and despite what a lot of Americans think, a truck load of money won't be enough. This is about saving face and honor to the Japanese and that can't be bought.

Exactly. The movie doesn’t have a screenplay yet, and it’s not even in production. The most BW could do at this point is send a letter informing Warner of their rights regarding the elements of Robotech. Once there’s some actual money involved, and something tangible (that’s based on Macross) it would be crazy for BW to not get involved, there would just be too much money at stake. I could see Warner being much quicker to settle than HG, but if HG doesn’t want to acknowledge BW’s ownership… Although, looking at Shadow Chronicles, that’s not really the case. But with Warner’s money empowering them, who knows. I doubt HG really wants to jeapordize whatever grey area rights they have, regardless.

What is it about this forum and having to write novel length posts... uggh