The publisher who owns the trademark for the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ series of books is suing Netflix for a whopping $35 million.
Chooseco, the publisher behind the lawsuit, claims that Netflix had been pursuing a licence to use the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark since 2016, but no deal had been reached. Chooseco trademarked its ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ series in the 1980s.
Their complaint in Vermont Federal Court also said that Chooseco had previously sent a written cease and desist to Netflix asking them to stop using ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ to market another TV show.
They added that 20th Century Fox currently holds an options contract to create an interactive series based on the books, so the fact that Netflix came in and stole their thunder with the biggest release of a Choose Your Own Adventure movie to date probably left them a little miffed.
The company also claims that the association with the ‘adult themes’ in the Black Mirror movie has been damaging to their brand.
“The use of Choose Your Own Adventure in association with such graphic content is likely to cause significant damage, impacting our book sales and affecting our ability to work with licensing partners in the future.”
They also claim that Netflix is benefitting from its association with the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ brand.
Am I the only one who had no idea that ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ was a trademarked series of books? I thought it was a general concept used by a variety of publishers. Evidently not.
ABC notes that Netflix has avoided using the words ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ in the marketing material for ‘Bandersnatch’, probably in an attempt to prevent this exact thing from happening. Maybe they can go back to the start and choose a different path?