Is A Movie Car A Copyrighted Character? A Top Court Just Decided

Since the early 2000s, those who wanted to build a Shelby Mustang GT500 had to be careful about how it looked in the end. The widow of the man who directed the original Gone in 60 Seconds notoriously litigated those who built cars that looked like the Mustang in that film, named Eleanor. After losing a court battle in 2022, she appealed and just lost again.

Denise Halicki, the widow, claimed that the car Eleanor was a character and was subject to copyright. For many years, she was successful in convincing courts of this and even had some big wins. In 2020, she went after YouTuber Chris Steinbacher for building an Eleanor tribute car. Not only did she get his project shut down, but he ended up losing the vehicle.

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Now, those interested in building such a car can rest even easier after an appeals court shut down Halicki for a second time. The decision comes from a panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. The panel was almost salty-sounding in their opinion. Specifically, they said that “Appellants’ argument stalls at the starting line: we hold that Eleanor is not a character, much less a copyrightable one.” Why be so harsh in what seemed like a legitimate challenge in the past?

The “Eleanor” Test: No Character, Just Car

The lynchpin to this whole thing came down to the car itself. As one judge put it, “Eleanor was not entitled to character copyright protection because it (1) did not have conceptual qualities, (2) did not have consistent traits, and (3) was not especially distinctive.” These facets of the argument are part of what the court calls the Towle test, named for a previous copyright lawsuit.

The judges compared Eleanor to the Batmobile, and on their face, they sound very similar. What makes them different, though, in part, is that the Batmobile sometimes does things without Bruce Wayne behind the wheel. It possesses some form of sentience. Eleanor doesn’t. “Eleanor is just one of many named cars in the films. In this way, Eleanor is more akin to a prop than a character,” the judges said.

The second part of the test saw the Mustang flunk again since it’s appeared in so many different forms. “Across four films and eleven iterations in those films, Eleanor lacks consistent traits. For example, Eleanor’s physical appearance changes frequently throughout the various films, appearing as a yellow and black Fastback Mustang, a gray and black Shelby GT-500 Mustang, and a rusty, paintless Mustang in need of repair.”

Finally, the judges said Eleanor failed the third part of the test because it’s very similar to many other cars in other movies. Again, they compared it to the Batmobile with its clear “Bat-like appearance.” A simpler way to think of this might be to compare it to one of the cars from the Pixar movie Cars. They have personality, they’re recognizable, and consistent. They act on their own, and so they pass all of these same tests.

A Win For Shelby

It’s also worth noting that this lawsuit was between Halicki and Shelby, yes, the one who collaborated with Ford to build the original Shelby Mustang. Not only does the automaker now have more freedom to get to work on cars like this, but the judges also decided that it should get declaratory relief in order to make it even clearer that it doesn’t infringe on Halicki’s rights.

In the end, this means that those who want to build a Mustang akin to the one in Gone in 60 Seconds can go for it with more case law to back up that freedom. Considering that this ended up in an appeals court, though, there’s no promise that Halicki won’t still try to come after some folks.

Photos RM Sotherby’s