EA sues company over use of "Dillinger" in Godfather games

Posted Sep 2nd 2009 3:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Biz, Action

The games weren't very good but Electronic Arts is now defending its recent Godfather movie-based games in court. GamePolitics reports that EA has filed a lawsuit against a man whom EA claims is trying to shake down the publisher for millions of dollars over the use of a name.

That name, by the way, is "Dillinger" – as in the famous 1930's bank robber John Dillinger. A man who says he is the grandson of Dillinger's half-sister (yes, we know that's odd) also claims to own the rights to everything named "Dillinger". EA happens to have named some weapons after Dillinger in both Godfather games. In their lawsuit against "Dillinger LLC" EA claims, "Dillinger threatened EA with litigation unless it agreed to pay Dillinger millions of dollars for the game elements..." EA claims that it's usages of the name "do not violate any right to publicity or infringe any trademark" under the First Amendment.

Gallery: The Godfather II

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, john-dillinger, the-godfather-2, the-godfather-ii

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

The nerve of some people.. they use law suits to make a quick buck. People like that should burn in hell. Posted at 3:57PM on Sep 2nd 2009 by Cheesus(Crust)

BTW Big Download fix the freakin comment system so that people can REPLY to comments! Make it like Joystiq or Engadget.Posted at 3:57PM on Sep 2nd 2009 by Cheesus(Crust)