I can name a few of them, but it is my expectation that Spielberg and Lucas generated a body of lawsuits claiming that characters from blockbusters like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park stole from previous existing works. Decided in 1984 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the case of Litchfield v. Spielberg concerned E.T., the Extra Terrestrial. More specifically, Litchfield’s case claimed that the E.T. character infringed on the rights of a musical play, Lokey from Maldemar.
The case concerned claims of copyright infringement, unfair competition, and a number of state claims alleging that E.T. really ripped off Lokey. ) The problem is that today, no information about Lokey can be easily found on the internet.) Before being heard by the appellate court, a district court dismissed most of the claims in question.
Lisa Litchfield wrote a one-act play called Lokey from Maldemar in 1978 and public performances occurred in Los Angeles the same year. Around the same time, Litchfield also submitted a copy of Lokey to Universal City Studios in the effort to turn the script into a movie. In October 1979, Universal rejected Lokey. Litchfield even tried to sell a screenplay version that she wrote of Lokey, but was unsuccessful.
So what’s Lokey about and is it close to E.T.? Lokey told the tale of two aliens, Fudinkle and Lokey, who are stranded on Earth when their spacecraft gets stuck. Landing on the North Pole, the aliens meet a child, Lisa Marie, her brother Michael, and their father who is a scientist working at the Sorenson Research Center at the North Pole. After learning English, the aliens are invited home by Lisa Marie. While at Lisa Marie’s home, Lokey uses telekinesis to take a gun away from the father, save the father from a heart attack, and projects a map of Earth on the cabin wall. Lisa Marie bonds with Lokey, who later departs to a Japanese beach with Fudinkle. The aliens then travel to the Andes Mountain and meet a witch. The aliens then return home.
In 1982, E.T. the Extraterrestrial opened in theaters. For those of you who haven’t seen the film (which makes me wonder why you’re reading this), the film tells the story of an alien who crash lands on Earth and ends up in the California suburban home of a boy Eliot, his brother, his sister, and their mother. Overtime E.T learns English and builds a device to “phone home”. E.T. also reveals that he has the power to levitate objects, heal wounds, and revive flowers. E.T. also develops a bond with Eliot. Later, E.T. is capture by scientists, but escapes and leaves Earth.
The court first tackled an issue about subject matter jurisdiction in which it held that the court still had subject matter over claims even though the defendant had not raised them.
The court then tackled the issue of whether the district court was right to issue summary judgment regarding copyright infringement in favor of Spielberg. To establish copyright infringement, a person must show that they owned a copyright right, the other party had access to the copyright work, and a substantial similarity existed between the original work and the infringing one.
The court quickly noted that Lokey’s rights were owned by the plaintiff and that Spielberg had access to Lokey. Regarding the issue of substantial similarity, the court compared Lokey and ET. More particularly, the court compared two versions of Lokey and the continuity script of E.T.
The court noted that similarities exist between the opening of Lokey and E.T. The court, however, did not find any substantial similarity in the events, mood, dialogue, or characters in both works. While E.T. focuses on the development of characters and the relationship between a boy and an extra-terrestrial, the court found that Lokey explores the concepts of mankind separated by fear and hate. As a result, the court dismissed derivative claims because E.t. was not established to be an infring work.
As a result, the court found that summary judgment was proper because a reasonable jury could not find that E.T. was substantially similar to Lokey.
Was Spielberg aware that Lokey existed? I don’t think Spielberg in 1978 when he was at the unrivaled King of Hollywood was looking at rejected scripts at Universal. They’re really just about two aliens. That said, Spielberg wasn’t even the one who wrote E.T., but instead the script was written by Melissa Mathison, who would go onto marry Harrison Ford in 1983. They’re just two scripts about aliens and Litchfield wanted a shake of the E.T. money. End of story.
Stupendously bad decision
Bad decision
Okay decision
X – Good decision
Great decision
Rich ross landing page
The 22nd Row 