Disney irked over 'Frozen Land' name change, files trademark lawsuit

Disney has filed a trademark lawsuit against Phase 4 Films, claiming that they changed the name of a recent film to Frozen Land in an attempt to leech off the success of Frozen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is looking for both an injunction and for Phase 4 Films to destroy all DVD copies of Frozen Land, in addition to monetary compensation.

The suit alleges, "On November 1, 2013, less than three weeks before the Hollywood premiere of FROZEN on November 19, Phase 4 theatrically released an animated picture entitled The Legend of Sarila, which generated minimal box office revenues and no significant attention."

The complaint continues that Phase 4 changed the name of the film to Frozen Land in an attempt "intentionally" mislead consumers. The new logo for the movie is even fairly similar to that of Frozen's, leaving little doubt what Phase 4 was attempting to do.

Film titles aren't something that can normally be trademarked, but studios can sue over similar titles or logos, which Warner Bros. successfully did against a mockumentary called Age of Hobbits.

It's not a huge surprise that another movie studio would want to ride the coattails of Frozen to increased sales as the Disney movie has proved to be quite the hit. This past weekend, the animated feature managed to earn another $19.2 million at the box office.

Since being released on Thanksgiving weekend, Frozen has made $191.6 million at the domestic box office and $344,2 million worldwide.

image: Amazon

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