The Hobbit and Legal Problems

If you are a big fan of the online slots game called The Hobbit then you might be as well having a game of it while you can.

This is because it has been reported across in Hollywood that the estate of JRR Tolkien isn’t happy about the fact that the book has been turned into an online casino game.

In fact, lawyers for the author’s estate are actually going after the producers of the film version of The Hobbit, as they are the people who selling on the merchandising rights for this book and The Lord of the Rings for things like games.

$80 Million of Damages

They are claiming more than $80 million in damages as they claim that the rights grant was only for “tangible” merchandising and not for online games and other types of merchandising.

It seems that the issue first started out a couple of years ago when one of the estate’s attorneys got a spam email to his inbox telling him about The Hobbit game. At this point they went on to check out the rights agreement and what it covered. They concluded that Warner Bros had been giving the go ahead for products which hadn’t been authorised.

The law team said that the games which have come out based on Tolkien’s much loved book “patently exceed” the scope which had been granted. They also said that the appearance of these games has “outraged” many of the author’s fans and caused “irreparable harm” to his legacy as well as the goodwill which his books have generated over the years.