Hobbit stars save pub from copyright lawsuit
Actors Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen have offered to pay a yearly licence fee to save a Lord of the Rings-themed pub accused of copyright infringement.
The actors’ decision follows a Facebook campaign to save The Hobbit public house in Southampton, UK, after Californian film company The Saul Zaentz Company threatened landlady Stella Roberts with legal action, ordering her to change the pub’s name and remove all references to JRR Tolkien’s characters, or face closure.
Saul Zaentz, which owns UK trademarks for The Hobbit, covering drinking establishments, food and beverages, also objected to the sale of cocktails named ‘Frodo’ and ‘Gandalf’, and loyalty cards featuring Elijah Wood’s image. Wood played Frodo Baggins, a hobbit, in the Lord of the Rings films.
Ms Roberts, however, argued that as the pub had been trading for 20 years—including 15 years before the trademarks were registered— she should not be forced to rebrand.
“It was never our intention to steal, or profit from, work written or created by someone else,” she said in a statement. “When The Hobbit was originally renamed, no-one ever mentioned trademarks or copy right. To rebrand would cost us thousands.”
More than 50,000 people joined the Facebook group ‘Save The Hobbit’ and McKellen and Fry, who are both appearing in the forthcoming The Hobbit film, criticised the film company’s actions, describing it as “unnecessary pettiness” and “selfdefeating bullying”. The Saul Zaentz Company has now offered to resolve the matter by licensing the pub to use Tolkien brands for a fee of $100 per annum, which the actors have pledged to pay.
While The Hobbit pub is now in the clear, it seems the owners of Birmingham’s Hungry Hobbit cafe are not so lucky. Following discussions with Saul Zaentz’s legal team, owner Wendy Busst told the BBC she is thinking of changing ‘Hobbit’ to ‘Obbit’, or spelling the name with a backwards ‘b’ to avoid costly legal proceedings.
Defending the company, producer Paul Zaentz told the BBC: “If we didn’t go after these infringements, then people would say, ‘if they can use them without authorisation, why can’t we?’.”
