The Batmobile was patented 56 years ago today and still ended up in court
Copyright and trademark lawsuit ensued
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Holy Bat Patent, Batman!
Famous movie car designer George Barris was granted a patent for the design of the Batmobile 56 years ago today on October 18, 1966.
The iconic car was used throughout the Batman TV show's original three-season run and made an appearance years later in a 1989 film.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Barris designed the first one around a Lincoln Futura show car and built three more with fiberglass bodies for the production.
BATMOBILE IMPOUNDED BY MOSCOW POLICE
A patent for the Batmobile was issued on October 18, 1966. (USPTO)
The original was sold at auction in 2013 for $4.62 million, the same year it was the subject of a rights battle in court.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Not over the patent, which expired after 14 years, but its copyright and trademark protections.
Four cars with the design were featured on the Batman TV show. (Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
A company named Gotham Garage had been selling replicas of the vehicle and D.C. Comics accused it of violating its intellectual property without permission.
Justice Ronald Lew of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found in favor of D.C. owner Warner Bros., deciding that the Batmobile itself is a character.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}OLDEST-KNOWN "BATMOBILE" RESTORED AND READY TO GO
"Defendant’s argument that Batman is merely a car wholly fails to capture the creativity and fantastical elements that stand apart from the fact that the Batmobile also happens to look like a car," Lew wrote.
George Barris died in 2015. (Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Gotham Garage appealed the decision, but it was upheld through a unanimous verdict by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015, which cited the vehicle's "physical as well as conceptual qualities" and a role akin to being Batman's side-kick.
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Barris died just a few weeks after the decision. It was appealed once more to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it in 2016.