The owners of the multibillion-pound James Bond franchise have requested more time to mount their defence to keep control of the super spy’s name in Europe, after a legal challenge to their trademark rights across a range of goods and services.
In February, the Guardian revealed that a Dubai-based property developer had filed claims in the UK and EU arguing that lack of use meant various protections had lapsed around James Bond’s intellectual property, including his name, his 007 assignation and the catchphrase “Bond, James Bond”.
Nearly all the actions relate to the merchandising of goods and services under the Bond name, which can be challenged after five years of “non-use”.
Josef Kleindienst, an Austrian who is building a $5bn luxury resort complex called the Heart of Europe on six artificial islands off Dubai, has argued the trademarks have been commercially under-exploited .
Daniel Craig’s last outing as 007, No Time to Die, was released in 2021 and with no announcement yet of his replacement or timeline for production of the next film, the franchise is on track to beat the previous longest gap between instalments of six years and four months.
The Bond trademarks are registered to the US-based company Danjaq, which controls the rights to worldwide James Bond merchandising in conjunction with the UK-based production company Eon.
Danjaq had an initial 60 days to file its defence of the trademarks after the challenge. It has done so with the UK Intellectual Property Office, but has requested more time to file in the EU.
“As a general rule, any initial unilateral request for an extension that is received in time will be considered appropriate and will be granted,” said the EU Intellectual Property Office in a filing extending the deadline. However, it added that it was highly unlikely to grant a further extension beyond mid-June “unless there are exceptional circumstances”.
Danjaq also co-owns the copyright to the existing James Bond films, along with MGM Studios, which was acquired by Amazon for $8.5bn in 2021. Days after the report of Kleindienst’s legal challenges, it emerged that Amazon had paid more than $1bn to gain full “creative control” of the James Bond franchise from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, the longtime stewards of the Bond films.
With creative control, Amazon now has the power to move forward with new films and potentially TV spin-offs too, without approval from the two British-American heirs to the film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who had overseen the integrity of the character originally created in 1953 by the author Ian Fleming.
In March, Amazon confirmed that Amy Pascal and David Heyman would steer the next Bond film, although no release date or lead actor has yet been named.
Pascal has experience with the Bond series in her previous position as Sony’s chair of film, overseeing Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. She also had producer credits on the latest Spider-Man series.
Heyman is best known as the producer of all Harry Potter films as well as the Fantastic Beasts franchise and is now in pre-production on the much-anticipated HBO TV series adaptation of the stories. He is the second most commercially successful film producer of all time, with credits including Gravity, Paddington, Barbie, Wonka and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
