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Having a lifelong interest in the Batmobile, all the builders as they have come and gone, and all the controversy about rights with respect to commercial use, I must say I would LOVE to be on the jury for that case, it would be fascinating to hear and see firsthand what gets presented as evidence and arguments and then see how the legal system views and judges on it.

I'm not bashing the builder in saying that, there are multiple issues brought in this case not just the car missing it's completion date, and of course there are always 2 sides to every legal case. If the builder were to defend statements the customer claims he made about commercial use of the car then evidence would have to be presented to back that up and the court would have to rule on it, it would be very interesting!

I wonder too if the customer in this case has given up on getting a 66 Batmobile after this, or has he gone to a different builder, or possibly bought one of the several replicas for sale recently?

I don't think WB/DC or anybody on the corporate level could have squashed the project....for them to have a legal leg to stand on wouldn't the car have to be completed and PROVEN to be in use commercially? In other words, no crime had yet been committed that WB/DC types could have held legal action over.

They can't stop any of us from "building" a Batmobile, but perhaps how we "use" it, or "advertise" it, or perhaps if a builder advertises his kits with their logo's etc. but in this case it doesn't even sound like a car was built (at least per the document posted here anyways), or at least not even to a stage one might call it a Batmobile, so I personally doubt WB/DC types would have tried to stop this project.

There was rumor that WB/DC types had been after MT awhile back--no idea if there is any truth to that at all or not, but if they DID come down on him back them, perhaps they COULD stop him now if legal action such as a cease and desist type order had been issued.

Other builders though have had heat from WB/DC types and they seem to still be in business in the end, so who really knows.

The man suing in this case may be asking for punitive monies because he felt a legitimate injustice was made against him, and if so he certainly would be entitled to them and it doesn't make him greedy or anything, in fact he may be planning to donate those monies to the same charity if he wins them for all we know.

We are just a web chat room here, looking at a simple legal document that only states one side of the case, so really ANYTHING we speculate on is purely that, speculation.

But I do find the whole case fascinating, and if there is any truth to it, very sad. I don't wish ANY Batmobile potential owner to be denied a car so few of us will ever own, and I don't wish any builder legal issues or customer issues....the more reliable and honest builders we get, the better the replicas will get, and MAYBE someday more of us could afford one if there was more genuine competition amongst reputible builders.

Hopefully lawsuits like this one won't end up hurting our cottage industry and shutting it down somehow!