Production company Alcon Entertainment is suing the Elon Musk-owned Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery over copyright infringement and false endorsement. The company claims images from “Blade Runner 2049,” which it produced, were fed to AI to create unlicensed promotional materials for the company.
The lawsuit was filed on October 21st with the California federal court. It accuses Tesla and Musk himself of misappropriating “Blade Runner 2049”’s brand to promote its upcoming robotaxi. While some would say no publicity is bad publicity, Alcon doesn’t want its film to be affiliated with Musk. Mostly due to his “extreme political and social views,” which could tarnish the fan-favorite property.
“Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” reads the complaint. “Alcon did not want BR2049 to be affiliated with Musk.”
Robotaxi Showcase
Alcon’s claims extend to Warner Bros. Discovery for allegedly facilitating the partnership. Tesla partnered with WBD on the robotaxi showcase which, the suit claims, was held on the studio’s lot.
During the presentation, an image of a man wearing a trench coat as he gazed upon the ruins of a city was shown. All awash with a misty, orange light. The phrase “Not This” was put in the upper left corner of the sky. No, we will not be linking to the images in question.
Alcon believes this photo is “clearly intended to read visually” as a still from “Blade Runner 2049.” Even mimicking a scene where Ryan Gosling’s character explores a ruined Las Vegas. The company claims the robotaxi showcase was created by copying images from the film and prompting an AI image generator for a replica.
Denied Usage Rights
According to the lawsuit, Musk wanted to associate the robotaxi with the movie, and reportedly did ask permission to use a still. Alcon received an “emergency request” for clearance of the materials, since international rights would be involved, and WBD was only a domestic distributor. Alcon, it would seem, did not grant the clearance or permission, causing Tesla’s use of those images to be a direct violation to their copyright.
“All of the Defendants participated in its creation, and in its display in the presentation at the event, from a WBDI-owned building and studio lot, on WBDI-owned video screens and otherwise using WBDI-owned technology infrastructure, operated by or in conjunction with Tesla employees, all acting in whole or in part subject to the direction and control of Musk,” the filing reads.
“Blade Runner 2049”
Musk even made a direct reference to the film. “You know, I love ‘Blade Runner,’ but I don’t know if we want that future,” he said. “I believe we want that duster he’s wearing, but not the, uh, not the bleak apocalypse.” It is very likely he knew his request was denied, given the AI-generated image displayed rather than actual stills from the film.
The lawsuit claims WBD has limited clip licensing rights as a film distributor, though not for Tesla’s livestream event.
Alcon is seeking unspecified damages, and a court order barring Tesla from further distributing the problematic promotional materials. We’ll keep you posted on updates about this lawsuit as they become available.
