Hollywood's IP Wars: This Bud Isn't for You

6:00 AM PST 11/17/2012 by Eriq Gardner

Anheuser-Busch is mad at "Flight," Faulkner's estate is suing Sony: IP is going VIP as trademark overload reshapes how brands appear onscreen -- and how showbiz protects its assets.

When the Mayans foretold of a 2012 disaster, were they referring to a Hollywood "trademarklawpocalypse"? Consider these recent legal fights: The owner of William Faulkner's intellectual property rights sued Sony Pictures Classics on Oct. 25 over two lines used in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser, objected on legal grounds to Denzel Washington's overconsumption of its beer in Paramount's Flight. And publishing house Rizzoli demanded in October that NBC stop using "Rizzoli" as Ray Romano's character name on Parenthood.