Although Disney seemingly won out over a lawsuit filed against them and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in 2019, the suit was recently revived by a Court of Appeals.
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According to a recent report from The Hollywood Reporter, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has revived a lawsuit initially filed against Disney in November 2017. The lawsuit — started by A. Lee Alfred II and Ezequiel Martinez Jr. — alleged that Disney used their spec script of a pirate film for the basis of the character Jack Sparrow.
The spec script reportedly featured a different take on the pirate genre and featured fearsome pirate Davy Jones actually being funny instead of a fierce and scary pirate. In May 2019, the lawsuit was granted its motion for dismissal after a court found the elements between the script (written in 2000) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (released in 2003) mostly unprotectable.
However, the appeals court found it premature to determine whether or not the elements were unprotectable, and noted that additional evidence and other expert testimony would be more helpful. “This would be particularly useful in this circumstance, where the works in question are almost twenty years old and the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise may itself have shaped what are now considered pirate-movie tropes,” reads the successful appeal motion.
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Alfred and Martinez have since filed an amended complaint against Disney, and a request by Disney to have the issue settled by summary judgment has been denied because of conflicting testimonies. While this issue seemed largely put to bed, it seems as if Disney will once again be finding itself in the courts for one of its properties.
