Lucasfilm is being sued for Indiana Jones 5 – over a backpack

❘ Published: 2023-07-21T12:31:47

Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm has been sued for Indiana Jones 5, aka The Dial of Destiny – and the lawsuit is about a backpack.

Indiana Jones 5 dropped last month, and though it’s currently on an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the Disney-owned Lucasfilm movie is shaping up to be a box office disaster.

According to estimates, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny needs to make $600 million just to break even, but it’s only taken in $300 million at the global box office so far, with just $60 million in its open weekend.

But this isn’t the only issue the film has run into of late, with a new lawsuit being filed against its studio Lucasfilm this week.

Lucasfilm is being sued for Indiana Jones 5 – over a backpack

Clothing company Frost River filed a lawsuit against Lucasfilm on Wednesday, July 19, accusing the studio of using its backpacks in the movie without permission and trying to pass it off as Filson’s, a direct competitor, by removing identifying marks.

The lawsuit, published by The Hollywood Reporter, highlights a marketing campaign between Lucasfilm and Filson, alleging numerous instances in which Frost River’s products were shown and promoted without credit or permission. According to the complainant, removing the bag’s identifying marks is in violation of the federal trademark law, the Lanham Act.

As stated in the introduction of the legal document: “Indiana Jones, an eccentric archaeologist, is known for stealing priceless artifacts while dodging giant, rolling boulders. Not unlike its character, Lucasfilm had no qualms misappropriating Frost River’s successful ‘Geologist Pack’ and other Frost River products for use in the film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Tweet about Lucasfilm and Filson marketing campaign

Lucasfilm and Filson launched a marketing campaign for Indiana Jones 5.

“That is, Lucasfilm used Frost River’s products in Indiana Jones 5 without consulting Frost River or obtaining permission to do so. Lucasfilm and Filson, a direct competitor of Frost River, then engaged in a joint marketing campaign, including national television commercial advertising, that featured clips of Indiana Jones wearing Frost River’s products, including the Geologist Pack.

“Indeed, Lucasfilm and Filson were so brazen in their marketing and disregard for Frost River’s rights to its intellectual property, that they used clips of Indiana Jones wearing Frost River’s Geologist Pack on Filson’s own website.

“This lawsuit concerns two corporate juggernauts, Filson and Lucasfilm, exploiting the hard work and intellectual property of Frost River, a small American company.”

Devin McRae, a lawyer for Frost River, added: “Lucasfilm and Filson produced a 60 second commercial prominently featuring video clips from the Indiana Jones 5 film intertwined with video clips of actors using Filson’s own products. Shockingly, one of the intertwined video clips was one from Indiana Jones 5 featuring Frost River’s Geologist Pack.”

Both Lucasfilm and Filson are yet to reply to THR’s request for comment, so we’ll just have to wait and see how the situation pans out in the coming days. We’ll be sure to keep you updated.

In the meantime, you can check out our Indiana Jones 5 coverage below: