Harvey Films

Last updated
Harvey Films
Harvey Entertainment
Company type Subsidiary
Industry
Founded
  • 1957;67 years ago (1957) (as animation arm)
  • 2001;23 years ago (2001) (as in-name-only unit)
Headquarters
United States
Parent DreamWorks Classics

Harvey Films (also known as Harvey Entertainment, The Harvey Entertainment Company or simply Harvey) was the production arm of comic book publisher Harvey Comics. It was founded in 1957. [1] [2]

Contents

In the early 1960s, they created Harvey Funnies, the original entertainment company to produce The New Casper Cartoon Show. [3]

The series is now owned by DreamWorks Animation, because of their buyout of Classic Media in 2012.

Harvey Films v. Columbia Pictures

On October 28, 1986, Harvey Films had a lawsuit with Columbia Pictures claiming that the logo for the film Ghostbusters was similar to the logo for The Ghostly Trio , specifically the ghost in the logo was similar to Fatso, and Columbia argued that Fatso was only a portion of their, at the time, renewed trademark, and there were three ghosts instead of just one. The court argued that the logos are largely dissimilar and that The Ghostly Trio had only the words of the trademark and the three ghosts while the logo for Ghostbusters has a sign for prohibition with only the torso and head of only one ghost. The expressions are different, with their ghosts having mischievous or evil facial expressions, while the other one is bewildered. The court said:

Accordingly, the Court concludes that the claimed likelihood of confusion has no material basis in fact. The sole evidence which Harvey has produced on this issue are excerpts from magazine articles which suggest a general association between the "Ghostbusters" logo and "Casper" comics. It is clear from reading these articles that there was no confusion whatsoever on the part of the authors. A finding of general association, that the "Ghostbusters" logo is reminiscent of "Casper" characters, does not mean that the prospective moviegoer in purchasing a ticket for "Ghostbusters" thinks that he is going to see a "Casper" cartoon. Neither does it mean that he will think that "Ghostbusters" is derived from "Casper" cartoons or that it is sponsored by the same source as "Casper".

The court dismissed the case for not violating their trademark. [2]

List of Harvey Films productions

Theatrical films

TV series

Direct-to-video

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References

  1. ↑ Meyer, Thomas A. (2010). Innovate!: How Great Companies Get Started in Terrible Times . Hoboken: Wiley. p.  16. ISBN   978-0470560587.
  2. 1 2 "Harvey Cartoons v. Columbia Pictures Industries, 645 F. Supp. 1564 (S.D.N.Y. 1986)". Justia US Law. 1986-10-28. Archived from the original on 2017-07-15. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  3. ↑ Fischer, Stuart (2014-06-10). Kids' TV: The First Twenty-Five Years. Open Road Media. ISBN   9781497633902. Archived from the original on 2022-03-03. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
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