As Indiana federal judge Philip Simon puts the key question in setting up his ruling, “Is it trademark infringement if a fictional company or product in a movie or television drama bears the same name or brand as a real company or product?” Judge Simon answers, No!

“Warner Bros. ‘clean slate’ software only exists in the fictional world of Gotham; it does not exist in reality. This may seem to be a small point, but it has big ramifications for the consumer confusion analysis, which become apparent once you realize the argument that Fortres Grand has not made – and cannot make.”

Judge Simon also accepts Warner Bros.’ point that there can be no confusion of the source of origin because of the business it is in. The studio argued, ““Plaintiff is not in the motion picture business, and it would be absurd to think that customers buy tickets to The Dark Knight Rises or purchase the DVD/Blu-ray because of a perceived association of the Film with Fortres Grand’s products.”

When a movie makes over $1 billion at the box office alone, everyone thinks they deserve a piece of it. For all you law nerds, check out the official ruling here.

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter (via IGN)

The post Warner Bros. sued over The Dark Knight Rises’ “clean slate” appeared first on Batman News.

Now I’m curious as to what other special features are out there. Perhaps Warner Bros. is saving them all for their “Ultimate Batman Trilogy” Blu-ray boxset which is rumored to be coming out this fall. Big thanks to JackWhite at the Superhero Hype forums for the heads up!

The post Behind the scenes of The Dark Knight Rises’ Batpod chase (video) appeared first on Batman News.

Aaron Eckhart revealed that he hasn’t seen The Dark Knight Rises, which is surprising since his character from The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent, played a big role in the story. Eckhart also goes on to talk more about his experience with The Dark Knight, Two-Face, Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan, and even gave his opinion about the future of the Batman franchise. The Batman talk starts around the 01:01:30 mark, check it out and head on over to IGN for more!

SOURCE: IGN

The post Aaron Eckhart talks ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan and more (audio) appeared first on Batman News.

MOVIE OF THE YEAR

• “Django Unchained”
• “Silver Linings Playbook”
• “Ted”
• “The Avengers”
• “The Dark Knight Rises”

BEST SHIRTLESS PERFORMANCE

• Christian Bale — “The Dark Knight Rises”
• Daniel Craig — “Skyfall”
• Taylor Lautner — “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2″
• Seth MacFarlane as Ted — “Ted”
• Channing Tatum — “Magic Mike”

BEST FIGHT

• Jamie Foxx vs. Candieland Henchmen — “Django Unchained”
• Daniel Craig vs. Ola Rapace — “Skyfall”
• Mark Wahlberg vs. Seth MacFarlane as Ted — “Ted”
• Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner vs. Tom Hiddleston — “The Avengers”
• Christian Bale vs. Tom Hardy — “The Dark Knight Rises”

BEST VILLAIN

• Javier Bardem — “Skyfall”
• Leonardo DiCaprio — “Django Unchained”
• Marion Cotillard — “The Dark Knight Rises”
• Tom Hardy — “The Dark Knight Rises”
• Tom Hiddleston — “The Avengers

The post ‘The Avengers’ dominates ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards appeared first on Batman News.

Tom Hardy took a break from shooting his new movie Animal Rescue today to pose with a young fan who was dressed as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. After watching his menacing performance last summer, it’s nice to see his softer side in real life.

SOURCE: ET Online

The post Tom Hardy poses with mini-Bane on set of new movie (photo) appeared first on Batman News.

Batman

Batman Returns

Batman Forever

Batman & Robin

Batman Begins

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Rises

SOURCE: Rafa Toro via (MTV)

The post Artist creates animated cartoons of classic Batman movie villains appeared first on Batman News.

The Dark Knight Rises may not have been nominated for any Oscars, but at least it has a chance to dominate at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards. Best of all, it’s us — the fans, who get to choose the winners. Here are the categories where The Dark Knight Rises has been nominated:

MOVIE OF THE YEAR

• “Django Unchained”
• “Silver Linings Playbook”
• “Ted”
• “The Avengers”
• “The Dark Knight Rises”

BEST SHIRTLESS PERFORMANCE

• Christian Bale — “The Dark Knight Rises”
• Daniel Craig — “Skyfall”
• Taylor Lautner — “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2″
• Seth MacFarlane as Ted — “Ted”
• Channing Tatum — “Magic Mike”

BEST FIGHT

• Jamie Foxx vs. Candieland Henchmen — “Django Unchained”
• Daniel Craig vs. Ola Rapace — “Skyfall”
• Mark Wahlberg vs. Seth MacFarlane as Ted — “Ted”
• Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner vs. Tom Hiddleston — “The Avengers”
• Christian Bale vs. Tom Hardy — “The Dark Knight Rises”

BEST VILLAIN

• Javier Bardem — “Skyfall”
• Leonardo DiCaprio — “Django Unchained”
• Marion Cotillard — “The Dark Knight Rises”
• Tom Hardy — “The Dark Knight Rises”
• Tom Hiddleston — “The Avengers

Head on over to MTV and cast your votes now! I think that The Avengers is the biggest threat in the “Movie of the Year” category and if Christian Bale vs. Tom Hardy doesn’t win “Best Fight” I’d be shocked. Best of luck to Christian Bale in the “Best Shirtless Performance” category… though I’m disappointed to see that Marion Cotillard got snubbed.

SOURCE: MTV

The post ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ nominated for four MTV Movie Awards appeared first on Batman News.

And come back late tonight… around 1am ET to see the brand new Batman News! I’m launching a major redesign that’s been months in the making. I can’t wait for you all to see it!

The post Joey King on shaving her head for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (video) appeared first on Batman News.

The Oscar nominations for the 85th Annual Academy Awards were just unveiled and The Dark Knight Rises is no where to be found. I’m a little surprised. I wasn’t expecting it to get nominated in any of the major categories, but I did expect it to be nominated in a more technical category like “Best Cinematography”.

The Dark Knight received 8 Oscar nominations back in 2009, so either The Academy really disliked Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman finale, or the competition was extra strong. Not all The Dark Knight Rises stars are upset though… Anne Hathaway received a “Best Actress In a Supporting Role” nomination for her work in Les Misérables.

SOURCE: Oscars

The post No Oscar nominations for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ appeared first on Batman News.

Batman fans had been waiting for 2012 for a long time… and tomorrow it’ll already be behind us. In July we all finally got to see The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s epic conclusion to his Batman trilogy. The build up and excitement for this movie was unlike any other, and it could be a long time before we all come together to talk about another Batman movie of its scale. For now, let’s take a look at the five most popular The Dark Knight Rises articles published here on Batman News in 2012.

1. Think Bane’s too small in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’? Tom Hardy says “Trust me. Trust Nolan”
   • 238,831 views. This one definitely surprised me. After The Dark Knight Rises came out, Batman News received a ton of traffic to this article from people searching for “Tom Hardy” on Google.
2. Epic new ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ footage from the MTV Movie Awards (video)
   • 156,696 views. For some reason Warner Bros. didn’t want this footage online after it aired, but many online publications uploaded the video anyways. In July, it was finally officially released online thanks to XFINITY.
3. 6 new photos from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
   • 108,260 views. I’m not sure what made these photos so popular, but these stills from Entertainment Weekly’s “Summer Movie Preview” issue were some of the most viewed in 2012.
4. New photo of Bane from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, reveals why he wears the mask
   • 102,847 views. A new photo of Bane published in Rolling Stone magazine gained popularity after The Dark Knight Rises was released. Batman News received a lot of hits from Google for “Tom Hardy” and “Bane” searches.
5. Full-length ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ trailer #4 released in HD (video)
   • 91,963 views. The Dark Knight Rises trailer #3 may have been the most popular movie trailer of 2012 on YouTube, but here at Batman News it was trailer #4 that had the most views. This trailer surprised a lot of fans when it was released in April on Nokia’s YouTube page.

2012 was an amazing year for Batman News and I’m going to be pushing it even further in 2013. Stay tuned in early February for a few surprises. Thank you all for reading!

The post The Dark Knight Rises: the biggest stories of 2012 appeared first on Batman News.