by FilmInk Staff
Off the back of a short film proof of concept shot in his Kiev apartment, filmmaker Vasyl Moskalenko then raised $120k US through Kickstarter to make his comedic superhero feature Apple-Man. As you can see in the video below, Australian media covered his project extensively.
With the shoot wrapped, and in the midst of post-production, the filmmakers received a surprise package from Apple Inc.’s lawyers seeking to have Apple-Man’s trademark registration application denied.
“It was a big shock for me to be legally attacked by the most powerful company in the world, when I`ve done nothing wrong” said Moskalenko in a press release.
“United States Patent Office approved Apple-Man, but Apple Inc. started an aggressive opposition,” he continued. “If my registration would be denied, there are no guaranties that Apple wouldn`t demand to delete my film after its release.
“It actually looks like a trademark bullying,” said Moskalenko.
“A 3,5 trillion corporation tries to strong-arm a small independent film company that gets budget from crowdfunding. They know well, that whether they have a great case or not, if they’re willing to press this until the end, it won’t really matter how good their case is because a small company have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to see what happens. Small company usually doesn`t have such legal budget. And for Apple, tens of thousand dollars are nothing. They can easily destroy any small business by simply threatening its owner with upcoming litigation expenses. In my case, for example, I`ll have to spend almost all my Kickstarter money on litigation.”
Moskalenko made a video to explain his case.
