Marvel’s Phase One Blu-Ray Boxset Delayed over Briefcase Copyright Infringement

Bit of weird story I caught over at The Playlist here. Apparently, as the title of this post suggests, Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled Blu-ray boxset will be delayed over briefcase copyright infringement. Bizarre.

I find it difficult that such a simple mistake can be made in this day and age in Hollywood, but I guess working a project as large as The Avengers certain things can get missed. Such as the copyright details of briefcases and whatnot.

However, it wasn’t the briefcase at the focal point of the movie which was at fault. After all, it held the greatly sought after Tesseract and the suitcase got quite a bit of screen time. A mistake that basic was not made and indeed the necessary legal paperwork was filed and permission granted for the briefcase’s use in the film.

The problem arose during post-production or more accurately the deluxe Marvel Phase One Blu-Ray boxset which includes replica’s of the briefcase (see below).

The maker’s of the briefcase, German luggage company Rimowa BhmbH, filed a complaint in a California court alleging that “Marvel did not obtain any license or authorization from Rimowa to make replica copies of the case for any purpose . . . the plastic ‘replica case’ [is] 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.”

Oops.

As the Amazon product page confirms, the Boxset is now under review and cannot even be pre-ordered.

What do you think? Bizarre, right? Let me know in the comments below – it’d be awesome to hear from you.

Can’t wait to pre-order this? Why not just grab Marvel’s The Avengers (Four-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + Digital Copy + Digital Music Download) instead? Available for pre-order now, with a set release date of 25th September.