If NOTLD is public domain...

[Suicycho]

If Night is public domain, why don't Romero just start over with a new night of the living dead? He don't even have to change the title.

[bassman]

That's what the remake was. A chance for the original crew to make some money off the title....

[JDFP]

It kind of makes me ill to say this...

But if Romero were to re-make "Night" today and it was anything like his last effort, we might be pointing out the things in NOTLD 30th as to why it's a superior picture than anything Romero could do now.

j.p.

[Darksider18]

i believe there is a 3D Remake of the night of the living dead. but george a. romero is a writer. jeff broadstreet is the director. dont know if that counts as a george a romero remake of the 1990 version. but i dont get this. was 3D technology available at this age? give your own opinions, please. because i didnt even know about this until i googled it. lol.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489244/

[ProfessorChaos]

that film has nothing redeeming about it and is not worth the time. just some schmucks making a buck off the public domain flaw to the original. avoid at all costs.

[BillyRay]

that film has nothing redeeming about it and is not worth the time. just some schmucks making a buck off the public domain flaw to the original. avoid at all costs.

Sid Haig's a'ight in it.

Hey, it was the inspiration for doing the puppet version - if we sucked worse than the 3-D remake, we still wouldn't get sued. :)

[Mitchified]

Robert Kirkman actually addressed this issue during a panel at Comic Con for The Walking Dead. He stated that originally he was going to name his comic Night of the Living Dead so that it had immediate name credibility thanks to it being public domain. His agent asked him why he would want to use a name that he couldn't copyright himself and thus set him up for issues down the line dealing with ownership of the material. I imagine that George Romero doesn't reuse the name for the same reason; he's learned his lesson from the debacle the first time around.

[DubiousComforts]

His agent asked him why he would want to use a name that he couldn't copyright himself and thus set him up for issues down the line dealing with ownership of the material.
You can't copyright a title. You can trademark a title but need to show that you are doing business (or intend to do business) with that name.

[Mitchified]

You're right, I wrote copyright instead of trademark, that was a brain slip. The point still stands, though. If Romero couldn't trademark the name, why would he do a reboot with that name when he's already had so many issues with ownership?

[DubiousComforts]

You're right, I wrote copyright instead of trademark, that was a brain slip. The point still stands, though. If Romero couldn't trademark the name, why would he do a reboot with that name when he's already had so many issues with ownership?
Romero didn't think to trademark the name. Nobody ever said that he couldn't.

[Mitchified]

The thread is about why Romero hasn't started over with a new Night of the Living Dead with the same name. I'm not saying that he couldn't have back in the day, I'm saying that it wouldn't be beneficial for him to make a movie with the same name now because he can no longer trademark it due to it being in public domain. I was answering the question in the original post.

[DubiousComforts]

And to answer that point, Romero could have trademarked 'Night of the Living Dead' then, now or anytime, but he is not interested in doing further business using the name. Trademark is not affected by the public domain status of the film. Search the US Trademark and Patent Office site; there are companies doing business with 'Night of the Living Dead' as a registered trademark.


The thread is about why Romero hasn't started over with a new Night of the Living Dead with the same name. I'm not saying that he couldn't have back in the day, I'm saying that it wouldn't be beneficial for him to make a movie with the same name now because he can no longer trademark it due to it being in public domain. I was answering the question in the original post.

[Mitchified]

I was under the impression that Night of the Living Dead as a title had fallen victim to proprietary eponym. I guess I was wrong about that, although I'd imagine that a number of the movies sporting the trademark could have that trademark disputed if anyone cared enough to.

[DubiousComforts]

I was under the impression that Night of the Living Dead as a title had fallen victim to proprietary eponym. I guess I was wrong about that, although I'd imagine that a number of the movies sporting the trademark could have that trademark disputed if anyone cared enough to.
The catch is that anyone disputing the trademark would have to show a good reason for doing business with the same title, or their claim would probably be dismissed.

The same situation befell the old Godzilla films. In the 1960s and 70s, the Japanese company that owns Godzilla made deals with different distributors for releasing the various films and as a result, some of the American versions of these films have fallen into public domain. So in order to prepare for their partnership with Sony/TriStar for a big-budget American remake, the Japanese company simply trademarked Godzilla and all of the series' characters. Now nothing (public domain or otherwise) may be released in the United States bearing the name "Godzilla" without their permission.

[MoonSylver]

The same situation befell the old Godzilla films. In the 1960s and 70s, the Japanese company that owns Godzilla made deals with different distributors for releasing the various films and as a result, some of the American versions of these films have fallen into public domain. So in order to prepare for their partnership with Sony/TriStar for a big-budget American remake, the Japanese company simply trademarked Godzilla and all of the series' characters. Now nothing (public domain or otherwise) may be released in the United States bearing the name "Godzilla" without their permission.

Oh, and baby do they defend that copyright with a fevor that has long ago crossed the border of zelotry & is deep in the heart of fanaticisim... :lol: :D

[krakenslayer]

Which explains why you never hear about this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Rodin) fellow any more. :D