A company that is totally independent of LucasFilm or Disney has taken its fascination for "Star Wars" to another level, but it appears that George Lucas himself is not pleased. LucasFilm has declared war on an unlicensed company who runs "Jedi Schools" by offering lighsaber wielding lessons based on the "Star Wars" franchise.
Telegraph reports that 45 year-old "Star Wars" mega fanatic Michael Brown had been running a series of classes through his academies in New York and Florida. With these, he teaches his Padawans to wield lightsabers so that they would be able to re-enact popular and well-loved scenes from the movies such as Darth Maul's epic moves with his double-ended lightsaber or those from Jedi Master Yoda.
Brown's love for "Star Wars" began even before technology allowed films to show those acrobatic and agile lightsaber battles by Jedis and Siths as he has watched the first "Star Wars" film over 32 times when it first came out. After he adopted the name Flynn Michael in 2005, he teaches his pupils a unique methodology of using the Force to manage coping with the busy life in the Big Apple.
His deep knowledge about the Jedi life and the lighsaber, including the physical aspects of the hilt and the required choreography, are also available on his website lightsaberacademy.com. The website says that Brown is the founder of the website and the academy and is known in the "Star Wars" fan community as a forerunner of organizing Lightsaber combat training since 2005.
Time reports that in the complaint wherein Brown is named as defendant, LucasFilm alleged that they also used a logo that is nearly identical to "Star Wars" and confusingly similar to a registered trademark by LucasFilm; the Jedi Order logo. The logo is also round in shape and has six wing-like features that curve upward and a star with eight points that have the top and bottom parts elongated as they stretch into a vertical line.
Lucasfilm has said that it has earlier served several cease and desist orders. But all fell on deaf ears as Brown later attempted to register a trademark for "Lightsaber Academy Inc."
