According to Reuters and Courthouse News Service, Hollywood’s Universal City Studios and Fifty Shades Ltd on 27th November 2012 have brought a copyright, trademark infringement and common law unfair competition case against Smash Pictures and a number of individuals in the Porn Industry for creating a pornographic film called “Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX Adaptation.”

This year, Universal Studios bought the rights to make the film Fifty Shades of Grey based on the highly successful book series by British author E. L. James that has sold 40 million copies world-wide. 

The Smash Pictures film copies the story line, unabashedly borrows the characters, plot and the language of the script, it also is marketed using DVD cover packaging that closely relates to the original books.

A subsidiary company called Luv Moves that makes sex toys have also created a package called “Fifty Shades of Pleasure: Play Kit & Movie”, that is also accused of allegedly using the trademarks of Fifty Shades Ltd to market this product.

The Plaintiffs are represented by Andrew Thomas of Jenner & Block law firm.

The 31 page complaint states as follows:

“By lifting exact dialogue, characters, events, story, and style from the Fifty Shades trilogy, Smash Pictures ensured that the First XXX adaptation was, in fact, as close as possible to the original works. Beginning with the first XXX Adaptation’s opening scene and continuing throughout the next two and a half hours of the film, Smash Pictures copies without reservation from the unique expressive elements of the Fifty Shades trilogy, progressing through the events of Fifty Shades of Grey and into the second book, Fifty Shades Darker. The first XXX Adaptation is not a parody, and it does not comment on, criticize, or ridicule the originals. It is a rip-off, plain and simple.”

The complaint relies on press and media coverage, such as an interview in L.A Weekly with Stuart Wall (Smash Pictures’ boss), in which he says the porn film is “very true to the book.”

Universal may have got in there early with the film rights but it is difficult to see how the sex industry will not seek to exploit this material when it has proven to have had such high appeal, particularly for women. Let’s see how this case unfolds.

Jessica Franses