14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Electronic Arts has announced that it has entered a law suit against the estate which manages the interests of John Dillinger, the early XX century gangster who is now being portrayed on the big screen by Johnny Depp.
The company is filing the suit in a preemptive manner, it is saying, mainly because the estate has previously threatened the company with legal action over the fact that it has used “Dillinger” as a name for weapons appearing in the Godfather series of videogames.
The legal action was filled by Electronic Arts on August 27 and documents which have been dug up by GamePolitics show that the Dillinger estate is claiming that it has a so-called “right of publicity” related to the gangster and has even trademarked his name. It is saying that both the Dillinger Tommy Gun from the first Godfather videogame and the Modern Dillinger from this year's sequel are violating that trademark.
On its part, Electronic Arts is claiming that the First Amendment is protecting the use of the name in the videogames and hopes that the court will be stating that use in a videogame does not violate and infringe on trademarks.
EA says that “following Dillinger's recent conduct, EA is faced with the choice of either abandoning its rights to develop, publish, and sell the works at issue or risk liability for damages.”
Still, the issue seems a bit trivial considering that we are only talking about two weapons used in a videogame series. On the one hand, EA is right to claim that the name of Dillinger symbolizes an era and can be used to add flavor to its titles. On the other hand, the Dillinger estate has a trademark and needs to protect the way it is used. The two sides will probably reach a settlement.