Pixar Is Being Sued By It's Own Lamp

 

 

Well, sort of.  The famous animated filmmakers are actually being sued by Luxo ASA, the company which originally created the Luxo lamp that Pixar based its first ever animated short on.  You've all seen the little hopping lamp that squishes down the I in Pixar's name in all of the Pixar logos (as seen above).  Well, that little hopping lamp is called Luxo Jr., and he was the star of the first animated project ever worked on.  That film, simply enough, was called Luxo Jr. and it won an academy award back in 1986 when it first came out.  Now here we are, 23 years later and the Luxo lamp company have filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Pixar Studios.

 

Why did they wait so long to sue, you may ask?  It turns out that the Luxo company had no problem with Pixar using their name or their lamp's likeness as their logo.  In fact, the two companies had an agreement allowing them to do so and relations between the two were rather positive.  Pixar got to use a logo which had sentimental value to them as it was a reference to their beginnings, and Luxo benefited from free advertising every time the logo was shown or the name was referenced.  That recently changed however when this little item here was announced for sale later this year.

 



 

You're looking at the Luxo Jr. Premium Combo Pack for Pixar's latest film Up which will be coming out on Blu-ray and DVD on November 10th, 2009.  Packaged with Up in this combo pack is a fully functional replica of the Luxo Jr. lamp.  It turns out that the folks at Disney merchandising didn't care to notify the folks over at Luxo that they had decided to go into the lamp making business and Luxo didn't really appreciate that.  While they were fine with the existing arrangement of their lamp being used as a logo, they were far less happy with Disney making actual Luxo lamps complete with the Luxo name on them without paying Luxo any royalties or fees for them.

 

I can totally understand that.  If I was Luxo, I'd be upset too.  It's one thing to allow your likeness to be used, but it's totally another for someone else to take your name and creation and sell it as if it was their own.  While I disagree with Luxo's statement that Disney's DVD and Lamp combo pack will "cause devastating damage to Luxo and dilute the goodwill which Luxo has built up", I'm sure the move must definitely break whatever existing agreement the two companies had before.  I'd chalk this one up to Disney being stupid for not notifying Luxo of their intention to make the lamps beforehand and working out an agreement with them where they got a cut of the money.

 

I'm sure this will be worked out without much hassle.  Most likely, Disney will pull a few coins from their giant Scrooge McDuck money bin and throw it Luxo's way and they'll be perfectly happy. At least, that's how I hope it goes.  If Luxo decides to get all pissy and Pixar has to consider changing their logo, I think I'll be really annoyed with Luxo at that point.  I really like that little hopping lamp and will be pissed off if Pixar has to get rid of it.

 

Let's hope that doesn't happen.  Afterall, just look at how cute that little guy is.