Fight over Hollywood's use of 'Buck Rogers' name moves to Pittsburgh

Somewhere in a collapsed, abandoned coal mine near Scranton, World War I veteran Anthony Rogers is still in the radioactive, gas-induced hibernation that will have him waking up in a 25th century world ruled by vicious high-tech overlords.

Meanwhile, a Hollywood movie producer is suing a New Castle lawyer over the rights to Rogers' more commonly used name: “Buck Rogers.”

The Hollywood movie producer claims it is in the public domain. A federal judge in Los Angeles transferred the case Monday to U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

Like similar lawsuits over the use of “Sherlock Holmes” and “Zorro,” the case involves the complex interplay between copyrights and trademarks as applied to fictional characters.

One difference between this case and the others is that the original 1928 novella that has entered the public domain, “Armageddon 2419 A.D.,” never calls the main character “Buck Rogers.”

That difference could be important, said Michael Madison, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who specializes in intellectual property law.

A 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. said that Fox couldn't use a trademark as a “mutant copyright law” to limit public use of a World War II documentary it produced after its copyright expired in 1977.

The facts of that case, however, seem different from this one, he said.

“If the name Buck Rogers isn't part of the work that went into copyright's public domain, and if the name Buck Rogers is a valid trademark, then there's a decent chance that the defendant (claiming the Buck Rogers rights) wins,” he said.

John F. Dille, owner of a newspaper syndicate, worked with the author, Philip Nowlan, in creating a comic strip in 1929 based on the novella. Dille came up with the new name for the character, said Daniel Herman, one of the lawyers for the Dille Family Trust.

“ ‘Buck Rogers' is trademarked to the Dille Family Trust,” he said. “ ‘Buck Rogers has been in constant use since 1929 as a trademark.”

Team Angry Filmworks Inc. and Don Murphy, who produced “Natural Born Killers” and the Transformers movies, sued New Castle lawyer Louise Geer in August, seeking to obtain a court order declaring that “Buck Rogers” is in the public domain because the novella is no longer covered by a copyright.

Geer, Herman's law partner and wife, is the trustee of the Dille Family Trust.

Lawyers for Murphy couldn't be reached for comment.

Appearing in the first science fiction comic strip and later in a 12-part movie serial in 1939 and two television series in 1951 and 1979, “Buck Rogers” became synonymous with science fiction movies and space exploration.

The trust has several other attorneys and a Los Angeles theatrical agent that Murphy, through intermediaries, has twice unsuccessfully approached about getting a license to the name, Herman said.

“That's the long and short of it,” he said.

Murphy announced in July during Comic-Con in San Diego that he was bringing “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” to the big screen.

One of the screenwriters for the movie is Flint Dille, the grandson of John F. Dille, and a beneficiary of the trust, according to court documents.

After Murphy's announcement, Geer sent a letter to Flint Dille's attorney, notifying him that the Dille Family Trust has not licensed Murphy to use “Buck Rogers” and that Dille could end up being responsible to the trust for damaging its interests.

Murphy responded with the federal lawsuit, according to court documents.

Brian Bowling is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com.