November 10, 2005
Wyrd Sisters Almost Block Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was almost blocked from being shown in Canada. Canadian Folk group, the Wyrd Sisters, brought a lawsuit against the film to block it from being shown in Canada due to the fact that the movie has a musical group in it called "The Weird Sisters".
MTV gives us the following:
In their suit, the Wyrd Sisters — who have been performing on the Canadian folk circuit for more than 15 years — alleged that the film version of the Weird Sisters (which feature Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway) not only infringed on their trademarked name, but, more importantly, would confuse people who might be expecting the Wyrd Sisters to be related to Harry Potter.To be honest I can see why they'd be concerned. However, the good news for all you Canadain Harry Potter fans out there is that the Ontario Superior Court has ruled in favor of the Movie Studios saying that there was no real danger of the movie fans getting confused about who the real Wyrd Sisters are.
Man, can you imagine the uproar in Canada if the Judge had ruled the other way and all of a sudden there was no Harry Potter for Canada on opening day? Me thinks (right or wrong) the Wyrd Sisters would have got a LOT of hate mail to day the least.
Posted by John Campea at November 10, 2005 01:24 PM
Comments
Posted by: Al.x at November 11, 2005 03:43 AM
As far as I know the Weird Sisters go as far back as Western Europe mythology, with "Wyrd" merely being the Anglo-Saxon spelling, so how this ended up into any kind of trademark scuffle, I still do not know.
They never had a chance of blocking it and trust me, they've already gotten the hate mail, not only from Potter fans, but from Radiohead fans as well, since they cited members of the band in their suit.
Posted by: Arethusa at November 11, 2005 03:02 PM
Wyrd Sisters is also the 6th Discworld novel published in 1988. I happen to be reading it at the moment and it's great! The author Terry Pratchett has, to my knowlege, not sued anyone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters