The Hobbit Legal Battle Gets More Interesting

The legal battle in which the Lord of the Rings slots game has been caught up shows no signs of being resolved any time soon.

In fact, in a surprising twist the media company Warner Brothers has turned the tables on the estate of writer JRR Tolkien by counter suing them.

The legal battle isn’t just about the popular slots game which is based on the fantasy novel. However, it is one of the main areas of contention in the battle between the estate and the media giant.

The estate’s lawyers have claimed that the licensing agreement terms have been infringed through Warner Brother selling the rights to do things like make slots games based on Tolkien’s famous books.

No Hobbit Games

The initial lawsuit was raised for $80 million but not the lawyers for Warner Brothers have come back and claimed for “breach of contract”. They now claims that the estate’s actions have meant that they can’t get involved in the licensing of arcade game and video slots for the latest film based on the writer’s work; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

.The new lawsuit points out the Warner has not “entered into license agreements” for games based on The Hobbit despite it being a “form of common exploitation” which it used with the Lord of the Rings titles. It goes on to say that this has harmed the company because of “lost license revenue” as well as “decreased exposure” for the film. The estate’s lawyers called it a use of “intimidation tactics”.