Andrew Ainsworth is perhaps not a name that you would know off hand, but he was instrumental in the Star Wars trilogy by bringing the StormTrooper uniforms to life for Episode 4 and the other films. While the helmets were not designed by Ainsworth, but by Nick Pemberton, a friend and artist that lived in the same complex in Britain, he had created the molds for the actual costumes that were worn in the 1976 film. He also created the armor as well. And after Star Wars, Ainsworth went on to work in the film and television industry as a prop maker for such shows as Space 1999 and films Aliens and Superman, for which he created a wind machine and a front screen projector.
But he never forgot his roots and in 2004 decided to sell new castings from the original 1976 molds to fans, originally just in the UK, but once Lucas found out he had sold to US people as well, the legal team of the empire swooped down like Darth Vader going after Luke in the trench. They sued him for $20 million in 2008, but lost because the court did not consider helmets to be the same as sculptures and therefore were not subject to copyright.
Lucas took the case to the Appeals Court in 2009, but they also found that Ainsworth was not in violation.
Having lost both cases didn’t stop the hounds at Lucas from going after their fox and decided to resubmit the lawsuit to the British Supreme Court. There they hope to get not only a ruling on the case, but perhaps even a new interpretation of the law.
The idea that copyrights do not exist for costumes and such scares the filmmakers a lot. And even Peter Jackson, who directed Lord of the Rings, commented that it will have serious harm in doing business in the UK for filmmakers if that is their stand on copyright issues. A legal document in the case quoted Lucas as saying that UK is at odds with the rest of the world and such a stance could be very disturbing for the creative community.
Ainsworth, who runs his own website for which he sells the Star Wars trooper replicas and other props, is not backing down from the challenge. He believes that he has the law on his side, considering that Lucas has already lost twice. But he worries with the amount of money that the filmmaker has, can sway the jury towards changing the law to suit the industry.
We will keep you posted as the Supreme Court continues to hear the case.
