The estate of J.R.R Tolkien, writer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy books and the Hobbit has sued warner brothers for $80 million for misuse of the “characters, places, objects and events” in merchandizing deals.
The law suit states that merchandizing was to be limited to “tangible property,” which pertains to products like figurines, tableware, stationary items and clothing.
The estate stated that this did not include “…any grant of exploitations such as electronic or digital rights, rights in media yet to be devised or other intangibles such as rights in service.”
The Lord of the rings online slot was the most popular online slot of the last year. The rights to the game were acquired by Microgaming Software, a software leader in the online gambling arena responsible for titles like this years Game of the Year nominee The Dark Knight Online Slot. However the Lord of the Rings online slot game was abruptly pulled in June 2012 with speculation rife that the licensing agreement had fallen through.
The estate has added that fans have expressed confusion and even anger over seeing Bilbo, Frodo, Gollum and other beloved characters “associated with the morally questionable (and decidedly nonliterary) world of online and casino gambling.”
In the past two months other high profile estates have sold licensing rights to online gambling software providers. Playtech software released The John Wayne online slot as well as the Marilyn Monroe Online Slot in the last month, showing the undeniably lucrative money making industry that is the online gambling world.
Read the full lawsuit transcript here.
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