Batman, Spider-Man join forces in court
Claiming blatant and frequent copyright infringement in Israel , Warner Brothers teams up with Marvel in the fight against small Jerusalem vendor Kippa Man
Warner Brothers is joining Marvel in suing an Israeli skullcap vendor for copyright infringement, claiming that Kippa Man and its owner Avi Binyamin are selling copyright-infringing items featuring Batman’s costume design and symbol.
Last week Marvel, the company that owns the rights to Spider-Man, sued Jerusalem’s Kippa Man shop for NIS 100,000 (about $25,000) in damages.
Warner Brothers is also claiming NIS 100,000 in lost revenues in its lawsuit, which is being brought by local Israeli attorneys Ivtsan-Netzer-Wolecki & Co., the firm representing Marvel.
“The defendant distributes and sells kippas that carry the plaintiff’s symbols in a breach of the plaintiff’s rights to the product, including trademarks, the trademarked name, and copyrights,” read the lawsuit.
Israel, according to Warner Brothers, blatantly disregards copyright infringement, and does not employ any mechanism designed to enforce intellectual property rights. This, Warner Brothers claims, has caused Israel to become a serial offender as regards international intellectual property.
Kippa Man owner Binyamin, however, remains unimpressed, and continues to claim that the lawsuit has been unjustly filed against him. “We don’t even manufacture the kippot,” he told Maariv. “We order them from China. So let them sue the Chinese. Everybody does it, and they’ll continue to do it.”
According to the lawsuit, the claim marks the first in a possible series of petitions against small vendors that the company claims are making unlawful use of its copyrighted superheroes.
Stuart Winer contributed to this report
