Thankyou Forbes for this humdinger of a TM story – the temple is after $US50 Million on each claim. We presume this will keep them in fresh goats to slaughter for eternity and will also allow them to build a new temple in the heart of West Hollywood. Read on and enjoy
The Satanic Temple has sued Netflix and Warner Bros. over its use of an androgynous goat-headed statue in their dark reboot of Sabrina, the 1990s witch-themed television show, alleging that the companies are trampling on its intellectual property rights.
The temple has asked a federal court in Manhattan for “at least” $50 million on each claim of copyright and trademark infringement and injuring its business reputation. The temple also seeks an injunction to stop Netflix and Warner Bros. from continuing to distribute Chilling Adventures of Sabrinaand wants the statue’s image in existing episodes digitally altered.
“What makes this case particularly striking and significant,” according to the complaint, “is that it arises in the context of Defendants who are highly sophisticated media production and distribution companies which blatantly misappropriated Plaintiff’s unique expression of an idea even though they have a long history of vigorously protecting their own intellectual property.”
Ouch. Talk about taking the goat by the horns.
The Satanic Temple’s statue, “Baphomet With Children,” depicts an ancient deity and was involved in another legal controversy several years ago. In protest of a since-forbidden Ten Commandments display at the Oklahoma Capitol, the temple commissioned the statue as a symbol of the separation of church and state, intending to donate for placement near the religious monument. The temple’s Baphomet statue is a result of “a countless number of hours and approximately $100,000,” per the legal filing.
The lawsuit claims that a strikingly similar statue in the Sabrina series connects the image to evil and the forces against which the young witch is fighting. The danger, the temple alleges, is that when people now see its statue, they will associate it with the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and not with its original motive.
