Marvel and Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment is being sued by German luggage manufacturer Rimowa, which is claiming that the upcoming "Avengers" box set, out this September, is evidence of trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and creating unfair competition on it's attaché briefcase.
For the movie, Rimowa gave Marvel / Disney a briefcase for them to use as the case for the Tesseract. Rimowa is stating that "Marvel did not obtain any license or authorization from Rimowa to make replica copies of the cases for any purpose," which in this case is the briefcase replica found in the Avengers collector's box set.
According to the lawsuit, "Images of the replica briefcase on Marvel's advertising materials, and fan video from Marvel's product display at this year's Comic-Con convention, show the plastic 'replica case' to be a close copy of Rimowa's Topas attaché case in every respect but quality - from the proportions and coloring, to the style of the handle and latches, and, of course, in the use of the trademarked parallel ridges around the body of the case."
The bizarre thing? This is the second time a movie studio has recently been sued over luggage. Last year, French company Louis Vuitton sued Warner Bros over a scene in "The Hangover 2." The designer himself claimed that the scene harmed its brand and created customer confusion. The scene in question? Zach Galifianakis' character refers to his bag as "Lewis Vuitton." I thought it was bit of a stretch too, and thankfully, a judge agreed, dismissing the case this year.
Be carefu Rimowa, you're messing with S.H.I.E.L.D. now...
