Marty McFly and Doc Brown’s famous DeLorean from the “Back to the Future” movie franchise is at the center of a legal dispute over royalty payments. The DeLorean Motor Co. (DMC) claims that it is owed money for NBCUniversal’s use of the car in toys and other products, and is suing the entertainment company.
DMC has not yet said how much it is seeking from NBCUniversal, reports the LA Times, and will seek to determine the amount in court. It claims, though, that it has a right to five percent of revenue from merchandising and commercial tie-ups connected to the use of the car, which are largely related to the “Back to the Future” movies.
“DMC has requested that NBCUniversal provide accurate accounting of the monies owed to DMC, but NBCUniversal has delayed, deflected and refused these requests. NBCUniversal has also refused to disclose the extent of its use of the license granted to it,” DMC wrote in its suit.
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Although DMC is not associated with John Z. DeLorean, the engineer behind the famed stainless steel car, nor his estate, it says it acquired the intellectual property and trademarks belonging to the original company in 1997. It bought those assets from another company, that bought them from the original company after its collapse in 1982.
While that’s a somewhat convoluted history, DMC’s right to receive royalty payments from NBCUniversal was upheld in a previous legal battle between the Texas company and DeLorean’s estate. At the time, the company successfully earned a motion to dismiss the estate’s claim to the royalties in New Jersey federal court, despite the five percent deal being struck by John DeLorean in 1989.
Now, DMC says that NBCUniversal has used the license, but has not correctly paid royalties, putting it in breach of contract. The entertainment company denies the claim, though it has used the car on merchandise, as well as in the film “Ready Player One,” something DMC says was done without its authorization.
“Despite NBCUniversal’s continuous use of the license originally granted to Universal Studios, and although NBCUniversal has continued to pay out some royalties, NBCUniversal has failed to fully pay DMC for such use per the 1989 agreement,” DMC claims in its lawsuit.