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Warners' Puttar-Potter Suit Peters Out
2008-09-24
Los Angeles (E! Online) - Muggles are apparently bright enough to tell the difference between Harry Potter and Hari Puttar—no matter what Warner Bros. believes. A court in New Delhi, India, has dismissed the studio's legal action aiming to halt the release of Bollywood's Hari Puttar—A Comedy of Terrors over fears the name too closely resembles Warners' blockbuster franchise. The studio was concerned that poor moviegoers wouldn't be able to tell the difference, even though Puttar is, well, completely devoid of magic, which the court instructively pointed out in the ruling. In fact, Puttar's plot is more John Hughes than J.K. Rowling. Set in England, the film tells the tale of a 10-year-old Indian boy who, à la Macaulay Culkin, is left home alone by his parents and must guard his scientist dad's top-secret computer chip against a pair of inept thieves. Plus, Puttar's producers claim the similarity of the titles is purely coincidental since Hari is a common Indian name (it's Hindi for "God"), while Puttar is Hindi for "son." That argument cast a powerful spell on the court, which agreed with the defense and made the suit disappear. Warners was also spanked for failing to file its complaint three years ago, when the family comedy started production. Puttar was originally supposed to hit theaters earlier this month. But when Warners went to court, a few TV networks pulled the trailer, forcing the filmmakers to delay Puttar's release until the legal dispute could be settled. The decision now clears the way for the film to premiere in Mumbai on Wednesday and open wide across the subcontinent this Friday. Scott Rowe, a Warner Bros. rep, defended the studio's decision to initiate the case. "We brought these proceedings because we believe that the proposed title and marketing of the defendants' film infringed our intellectual property rights and unfairly sought to confuse consumers and benefit from the well-known and well-loved Harry Potter brand," he said in a statement. "As a content company, it is imperative that we continue to protect our valuable intellectual property rights in this property and we will now be reviewing the judgment and considering our options." Warners and its merry band of legal wizards are now batting .500 in Potter-powered legal battles this month. On Sept. 8, a U.S. federal judge found that the planned Harry Potter Lexicon illicitly swiped material from Rowling's work and halted its publication. Meanwhile, the studio recently pushed back the worldwide release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installment in its multibillion-dollar franchise, from November to next summer.
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