Paramount has failed in its efforts to ground a Top Gun: Maverick copyright lawsuit. “Defendant’s primary argument in its Motion to Dismiss is that Plaintiffs have not sufficiently pled in their FAC that the Article and the Sequel are ‘substantially similar,’” U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson wrote in a court order released Thursday. “The Court disagrees.”
“For all of the foregoing reasons, the Court denies the Motion to Dismiss,” the dense order continued. “The Court concludes that the FAC contains sufficient well-pleaded facts to state viable claims for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and declaratory relief.”
The first suit was filed in June and amended in August with an additional breach of contract claim, a complaint from the Israeli-bade widow and son of the author of 1983 articles that inspired the original 1986 Top Gun flick says that the 2022 sequel shouldn’t have derived a movie from the film without permission.
In California magazine’s May 1983 edition, Ehud Yonay wrote“ Top Guns,” about the pilots and program “located in a second-floor cubby of offices at the east end of Hangar One at Miramar.” The flick is a quickly now-classic Reagan Era pic and Yonay was cited in the credits of the first Top Gun. Now 35 years later Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay claim the rights reverted to them in January 2020 under copyright statutes.
Paramount claims Maverick was already pretty much done before the January 24, 2020 termination date. The studio also claims that it was filmed “prior derivative works exception” in the statute.
As this issue hits the federal court and they are seeking a large compensation.
“When the Court reviews the article and Maverick, as opposed to Plaintiffs’ irrelevant and misleading purported comparison of the works, it is clear as a matter of law that Maverick does not borrow any of the article’s protected expression,” the studio declared in its motion to dismiss filing August 26.
Unfortunately for Paramount, Anderson did review the material. And now Paramount has until November 28 to formally respond to the initial complaint.
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