Disney Doesn’t Want You Playing With Lightsabers

There is a group where I live in New York City called The New York Jedi. These guys, (some girls but mostly guys), get together to practice lightsaber fighting like it is a legitimate form of fencing. You can regularly see them practicing lightsaber technique in Prospect Park. They once closed down the Brooklyn Bridge in a massive duel. I once did a gig where I filmed these dudes at The New York Comic-Con and some of them were pretty good, you know, at fighting with plastic lightsabers. Lucasfilm and its parent company Disney are none to amused by the goings on of the New York Jedi or the related Lightsaber Academy. They are suing these nerds for copyright infringement. Disney claims in the lawsuit,

"Defendants regularly use the Lucasfilm Trademarks without authorization in connection with their businesses. Among other infringing activities, Defendants use a logo that is nearly identical, and confusingly similar, to Lucasfilm’s trademark Jedi Order logo … round in shape, with six wing-like shapes curving upward (three per side), and an eight-pointed star featuring elongated top and bottom points stretched into a vertical line." 

They have a point. The Lightsaber Academy logo is similar. Some people might say that Disney is trying to control its fans God given right to LARP. But you've always got to tread lightly when it comes to Star Wars. Lucasfilm and Disney are highly litigious. I always wondered when the iron glove of Darth Vader was going to smash down on these lightsaber groups.