George Lucas Loses Again in Appeal Against Designer for Selling Stormtrooper Replicas

We’ve told you several times about the ongoing legal battle between George Lucas and designer Andrew Ainsworth over the latter’s decision to sell replicas of the Stormtrooper outfits he helped create back in the late 1970s for the original Star Wars film. At last we left it, Ainsworth had successfully beaten the copyright charges against him in the UK (following his not-so-fortunate loss in the US back in 2006). Lucas and his team weren’t eager to let this go, so they immediately filed an appeal; but now it’s two strikes for the director, as a second judge as kicked the case out, saying the costumes are not works of art and the decision against Ainsworth in America had no bearing on UK copyright laws. So a good day for the designer, and even though he has to pay back many millions for the US violation, doesn’t this court decision give him the go ahead to keep selling Stormtroopers in Europe? If he sells enough, maybe this whole thing will pay for itself.

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