Victory for ‘Conan the Barbarian’ in copyright fight

The companies that own the rights to Robert E Howard’s works, including his famous “Conan the Barbarian” character, have obtained judgment against an individual who sculpted and sold character figurines in violation of copyright.

District Judge Frederic Block delivered his judgment at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday, August 15.

Conan Properties International owns the trademarks and copyright associated with Howard, a fantasy author who died in 1936. Another company, Robert E Howard Properties (REH), owns other aspects of Howard’s literary estate.

Howard is particularly well-known for his character “Conan the Barbarian”, a fictional sword and sorcery hero featured in books, comics, films, and video games.

Last year, the Howard companies filed a lawsuit against an individual who, they alleged, had wilfully infringed the trademarks and copyright associated with the “Conan the Barbarian” franchise. They asked for $70,000 in damages and a permanent injunction.

Conan Properties owns various trademark registrations affiliated with the character, including “Conan” and “Conan the Barbarian”. Also, the characters in the franchise are REH works that warrant copyright protection, according to the complaint.

The Howard companies alleged that sculptor Ricardo Jové Sanchez had produced and sold unauthorised reproductions of figurines portraying “Conan” and other related characters through crowd-funding website Kickstarter.

Sanchez, who resides in Spain, also displayed images of the infringing works on social media, the suit said.

In his judgment, Block noted that the sculptor’s figurines retailed at prices of up to $11,425.

The Howard companies submitted a takedown notice to Kickstarter in 2016. In response, Sanchez said the displayed works are his own copyright, and do not infringe any trademarks.

Earlier this year, Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann found Sanchez liable for trademark infringement but she said that certain characters, including “Conan”, are not sufficiently distinct to warrant copyright protection.

Mann recommended an award of $9,000 in damages for copyright infringement of three other characters that she determined are distinct, but said that injunctive relief should be denied.

Last week, Block disagreed with Mann and said that the Howard companies had “plausibly alleged” that they owned a valid copyright in all the characters as a result of of their copyright in the underlying works.

He said that Mann had erred in treating certain characters as separate subject matter from the works which they are included in, in the context of copyright protection.

Block determined that Sanchez had infringed the Howard companies’ copyright by displaying his statues of Howard’s characters on Facebook and Kickstarter.

He found that Sanchez had infringed the copyright of all seven characters, including “Conan”, and increased the damages awarded by Mann to $21,000.

Block also awarded injunctive relief. He said that Sanchez’s conduct presents “a strong threat of continuing infringement”, so monetary damages alone are “inadequate”.