Car designer demands US Supreme Court ends Batmobile copyright

A US appeals court overstepped its mark in awarding copyright protection to the Batmobile, according to a car designer, who has called on the US Supreme Court to intervene.

Mark Towle, based in the US, was unsuccessful in his dispute with DC Comics after the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that his Batmobile designs had infringed the comic book company’s copyright in September.

Towle built replicas of the Batmobile vehicles that featured in the 1966 Batman television series and the 1989 film directed by Tim Burton.

The 1966 design was produced by George Barris and the 1989 design by Anton Furst. Both designers obtained design patents for their work, but they have since expired.

DC sued Towle for copyright infringement and was successful at both the US District Court for the Central District of California and the ninth circuit in asserting its claim.

A three-judge panel on the ninth circuit said that the Batmobile displayed “consistent character traits” and also had a “unique and highly recognisable name”. For this reason, the Batmobile qualified for copyright protection and Towle’s work was considered infringing.

In a writ of certiorari filed on January 22, Towle said that Congress had specifically excluded “useful items” from copyright protection.

“It is improper for the courts to arbitrarily create an exception to such a clear mandate by Congress”, Towle argued, adding that the Batmobile cannot be considered a literary character because DC “created over 100 Batmobiles, with very different characteristics, and no consistent, widely-identifiable traits”.

Furthermore, Towle said the ninth circuit had failed to separate protectable elements of the designs in its infringement analysis and incorrectly stated that designs by Burris and Furst were derivative works of the Batmobile that featured in the comic book series.