Alcon Entertainment is suing Elon Musk and Tesla for allegedly using footage from the movie “Blade Runner 2049” for the launch of its self-driving taxi, Robotaxi.

According to AP on October 22, Alcon Entertainment filed a lawsuit against Tesla, CEO Elon Musk and Warner Bros. Discovery in a federal court in Southern California (USA). The production company accused them of copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting when using images from the film for the launch event of Tesla’s self-driving Robotaxi.

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Image from Blade Runner 2049 (front) and image of Tesla shown at Robotaxi launch. Photo: Alcon Entertainment/Tesla

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent Musk, Tesla, Warner Bros. Discovery, and anyone working with them from copying, displaying, or selling the “BR2049” trademark. Alcon also wants compensation for financial losses.

On October 10 (local time), Tesla debuted Robotaxi at the Warner Bros. Discovery campus in Burbank, California (USA). According to Alcon, during the demonstration, Elon Musk used artificial intelligence (AI) images simulating a scene of a person resembling actor Ryan Gosling and the futuristic vehicle from Blade Runner 2049 , although Alcon previously refused to allow their use. Tesla’s presentation was live-streamed globally and then re-posted, attracting millions of views.

On October 9, the day before the launch of the new taxi, Warner Bros. Discovery contacted Alcon to ask permission to use footage from the film for Tesla’s presentation. Alcon co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson declined Warner Bros.’ request, refusing to allow the film to involve Tesla or Musk.

Alcon representatives said the financial value of the unauthorized use of the image is huge. They invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build the “BR2049” brand into a globally famous movie icon. Previously, the association contract between car companies and movies was worth up to tens of millions of dollars.

In the lawsuit, Alcon stressed that it does not want any connection with “Tesla, X, Musk or any company owned by Musk.” The company representative said the move was due to the billionaire’s erratic and highly political behavior, including many inappropriate statements. The lawsuit stated: “He knew that including ‘BR2049’ in the presentation was illegal, but did it anyway.”

Alcon representatives said Musk and Tesla’s use of the images could confuse the company’s partners, including clients they work with for the Blade Runner 2099 series , currently filming in Europe and set to air on Amazon Prime.

On October 22, Elon Musk wrote on social network X : “That movie is so bad.” The post attracted more than 56,000 views and 1.8 thousand likes. Many users opposed Musk’s opinion, saying that Blade Runner 2049 is one of the best films released in the past 10 years. On the other hand, some people said the film’s pacing was boring. “They want to sue to get people to pay attention to the project,” wrote the PrimeXAI account.

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Trailer “Blade Runner 2049”. Video: Alcon Entertainment

Blade Runner 2049 was released in 2017 and directed by Denis Villeneuve. The film is set 30 years after the first film – released in 1982, when the creation of robots falls into the hands of the mysterious scientist Neander Wallace (Jared Leto). The new generation of robots are implanted with sophisticated fake memories, giving them emotions and personalities like real people. They also have a longer lifespan and play a leading role in many social activities. Meanwhile, the old robots are outlawed and gradually purged.

During a mission, police blade runner K – a new generation robot – discovers the body of a female robot who died during a cesarean section many years ago. Overwhelmed by the robot’s ability to reproduce, the police department’s boss assigns K to hunt down and kill this baby. The journey brings K to encounter many forces such as Wallace’s forces and the robot uprising movement. At the same time, he meets Rick Deckard- the main character of the previous part who is in seclusion.

At the 90th Academy Awards (2018), the film won two of its five nominations, including Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. The project also received eight nominations at the 2018 BAFTA Awards, including Best Director, winning for Cinematography and Visual Effects.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and owner of X (formerly known as Twitter). Photo: Reuters

Mr. Elon Musk (full name Elon Reeve Musk), 53 years old, is the founder and CEO of SpaceX; CEO, product architect of Tesla, founder of PayPal, co-founder of Neuralink, chairman of SolarCity. According to Forbes , Mr. Musk is currently the richest person in the world with a total asset of 251.3 billion USD.

The billionaire has 11 children, including six with his first wife Justine (whose first son died at 10 weeks old), three with singer Grimes and two with Shivon Zilis – his subordinate at Neuralink.