Context: On October 21, 2024, “Blade Runner 2049” producer Alcon Entertainment, LLC (Alcon) sued Elon Musk, Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery (Warner) in the Central District of California over copyright infringement, accusing the defendants of using artificial intelligence (AI) to create promotional imagery based on its 2017 movie at the launch event for Tesla’s robotaxi. At the time, Alcon alleged that “the financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial.” Warner, which distributed Blade Runner 2049 when it first came out, hosted the robotaxi launch event at its studios in Burbank, California. All three defendants filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit.
What’s new: Judge George Wu of the United States District Court for the Central District of California yesterday denied Elon Musk and Tesla’s request to dismiss most of the lawsuit (PDF) – and part of Warner’s attempts – ruling that he was inclined to dismiss allegations that the defendants violated Alcon’s rights under U.S. trademark law, but that the copyright claims could proceed. Mr. Musk only referenced the original movie at the event, and Tesla and Alcon are not competitors, he held. However, he also noted that Tesla and Mr. Musk had not adequately addressed the claim that they used AI to create a copy of “Blade Runner 2049” imagery after Alcon had denied them permission to use it for the cybercab event.
Direct impact and wider ramifications: While the trademark part of the complaint is bound to be dismissed, the copyright infringement claims will proceed. The entire decision is, of course, subject to appeal, but it will be interesting to see if the parties listen to the judge, who, at the end of yesterday’s hearing, urged both sides to settle the case. Even if Alcon did emerge victorious, any damages would be insignificant, Judge Wu said.
Alcon is an independent motion picture and television studio that owns the “BR2049” registered copyright and the “BR2049” marks and brand. In its suit, the plaintiff noted that, among other things, “BR2049” features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car throughout the story.”
In its suit, the plaintiff filed four claims for relief:
- Direct copyright infringement
- Vicarious copyright infringement
- Contributory copyright infringement
- False affiliation and/or false endorsement
The company’s false brand affiliation did not just last the 11 seconds that the image of the car was shown at the event. Thanks to livestreams and reposts that reached millions of views on X, “the false affiliation between BR2049 and Tesla is irreparably entangled in the global media tapestry, all as defendants knew would inevitably happen, and amplifying the damage and confusion risks,” Alcon alleged.
It added that the “financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial [and] any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicised, capricious and arbitrary behaviour, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
During a hearing on Monday, counsel for Tesla and Mr. Musk argued that the defendants had licensed an image from a stock photo agency and prompted an AI-driven image editor to add “Elon Musk in a trench coat looking into the city”. But Judge Wu was not convinced:
“Because Musk and Tesla did not enunciate a way to successfully dispose of plaintiff’s ‘literal copying’ theory in their motion, at a bare minimum it – and the direct copyright infringement claim in general – survives this motion against them. As such, Musk’s and Tesla’s ‘substantial similarity’-directed argument, and the numerous ways in which plaintiff believes it survives those arguments, are not resolved at this time.”
However, Judge Wu noted that there isn’t much merit in the trademark infringement claims over Mr. Musk’s use of the name “Blade Runner” at the launch, as it was used “for an artistically relevant purpose” and “clearly” did not explicitly mislead any consumers as to source or content.
Counsel
A team at Anderson Yeh PC is representing Alcon Entertainment, led by Edward Anderson and Regina Yeh. Meanwhile, Tesla and Warner are being represented by Fish & Richardson’s Kristen McCallion, John Goetz, Christopher Marchese, Vivian Cheng, and Matthew Colvin.