Save the Hobbit

[garrykiller]

AJS- said:

Getting Facebook, Stephen Fry and BBC news onside was quite a coup

Ian McKellen is now shown his support to the pub too on twitter

[JB!]

I love that pub! and "the Dungeon" down the road.

awesome nights out, a nice escape from stty Gosport.

[Gazzas86]

I also loved going to the pub, i have only ever once finished a 'fellowship' (i.e. every one of the cocktails they have on offer). Used to go there for a couple before going to jesters......

Gaz

[JB!]

Gazzas86 said:

I also loved going to the pub, i have only ever once finished a 'fellowship' (i.e. every one of the cocktails they have on offer). Used to go there for a couple before going to jesters......

Gaz

Legolas gets you legless.

[sadako]

To be fair, the pub did repaint the pub sign to resemble the on-screen characters and has been using those likenesses on their flyers and website. They were taking the piss.

[Oakey]

Besides which, one of the posters earlier on nailed the issue. If rights holders do not defend their trademarks they lose their rights to said trademarks and anyone could then use them.

[clonmult]

sadako said:

To be fair, the pub did repaint the pub sign to resemble the on-screen characters and has been using those likenesses on their flyers and website. They were taking the piss.

Sadly this is likely the case - just using the Hobbit name was probably acceptable, but using the images of characters from the films was definitely going too far.

[Esseesse]

Gazzas86 said:

I also loved going to the pub, i have only ever once finished a 'fellowship' (i.e. every one of the cocktails they have on offer).

[Lurking Lawyer]

carmonk said:

And what exactly are Hollywood's losses due to this breach? I'd say they might be around $0.00. fking horrible money-obsessed bds.

Arguably whatever they would have been reaonably able to charge to grant a licence to use the name.

[colonel c]

Perhaps they should change the name to The Prancing Pony.

[Lurking Lawyer]

Or to the more generic Hungry Halfling.

I wonder whether that is also a Tolkien creation and wheher it would fall foul of the same licensing issues? A lot less clear-cut than "hobbit" though, I'd have thought.

[tubbystu]

sadako said:

To be fair, the pub did repaint the pub sign to resemble the on-screen characters and has been using those likenesses on their flyers and website. They were taking the piss.

The name is one thing, but using recent imagery is just daft & asking fro trouble.

Perhaps they should go around the corner and get some advice from "The Bent Brief"



Unfortunately it seems "The Honest Lawyer" alternative down the road has been renamed.

[JonRB]

AJS- said:

As others have said, if it was simply a pub called The Hobbit, maybe even with the odd reference to the book or certain characters then I doubt anything would happen. But putting actors faces on their loyalty card is taking the piss a bit.

Indeed.

[KrazyIvan]

I dont get this, if the pub is so great, surely a name change wont suddenly see it go down the pan, or is the name (along with the other LOTR themes stuff) the only reason anyone goes there?

[garrykiller]

KrazyIvan said:

I dont get this, if the pub is so great, surely a name change wont suddenly see it go down the pan, or is the name (along with the other LOTR themes stuff) the only reason anyone goes there?

i think the point is that rebranding would cost too much money.

[KrazyIvan]

garrykiller said:

KrazyIvan said:

I dont get this, if the pub is so great, surely a name change wont suddenly see it go down the pan, or is the name (along with the other LOTR themes stuff) the only reason anyone goes there?

i think the point is that rebranding would cost too much money.

Compared to getting raped by the Hollywood hunger clowns, it probably not that much.

After all that Hollywood has suffered at the hands of pirates I would have thought we'd all be backing them in this case

[JonRB]

The sensible choice would be to stop infringing the copyright of the LOTR film with the likenesses of Elijah Wood, etc. and negotiate a license to use the word "Hobbit" and the names of the characters of the book for their cocktails. One could probably even argue "fair use" there since those are elements of the book that have become part of Pop Culture.

But, really, using images and likenesses from the films is just stupid and asking for trouble.

Edited by JonRB on Thursday 15th March 14:49

[0a]

tubbystu said:

Unfortunately it seems "The Honest Lawyer" alternative down the road has been renamed.

Never existed in the first place!

[AJS-]

tubbystu said:

Unfortunately it seems "The Honest Lawyer" alternative down the road has been renamed.

I think the English Bar sued them for defamation.

[hyperblue]

If the pub was just called 'The Hobbit', they'd have no problems. Seems like they've been taking the piss with the branding and using imagery from the films though.