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<i>Decision of Note</i><br>Suit Seeking Public Doman Status for 'Buck Rogers' Can Move Forward
Team Angry Filmworks' lawsuit seeking public domain status for science fiction hero “Buck Rogers” adventures is set to blast off now that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania denied a request to dismiss filed by the trust that licenses Rogers material. Team Angry Filmworks Inc. v. Geer, 15-1381.
The Pennsylvania-based trust acting as the gatekeeper for “Buck Rogers” intellectual property threatened to sue after Los Angeles-based Team Angry Filmworks announced it was developing a screenplay without the trust's approval based on Armageddon 2419 A.D. — a 1928 novella by Philip Francis Nowlan in which Buck Rogers made his first appearance.
The movie company asked U.S. District Chief Judge Joy Flowers Conti of the Western District of Pennsylvania to declare that the copyright to “Buck Rogers” has expired, arguing that the trust's claims over the material amounts to interference with the production company's attempts to make the film by discouraging studios like Warner Bros. or Sony, which have expressed interest in the project, from financing it.
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