We’ve seen plenty of unrelated movies that have shared a title over the years (Crash, Project X, The Avengers, just to name a few), but we rarely see any legal battles over movie titles because from a marketing standpoint it just makes sense to pick a unique title anyway. The Asylum has been sued a few times over their movie titles, largely because they are clearly trying to associate themselves with a current blockbuster, but in most cases where the other movie is over a decade old, it’s pretty unlikely that the general public would ever confuse the two. Which is why it was such a ballsy move for Warner Brothers to file a lawsuit against The Weinstein Company last week for their use of the title The Butler for the upcoming Lee Daniels movie. They claimed it was infringing on a 1916 silent short film that is also called The Butler. Now it looks like The Weinsteins may be forced to change the title just one month before the movie hits theatres.

According to Variety, Warner Brothers won a ruling last Tuesday that said The Weinstein Company could not use the title The Butler and that they had to immediately remove it from all of their marketing materials or face a daily $25,000 fine. TWC has since appealed the decision and have also hired attorney David Boies to potentially file an anti-trust lawsuit in response. Boies issued the following statement:

“The suggestion that there is a danger of confusion between TWC’s 2013 feature movie and a 1917 short that has not been shown in theaters, television, DVDs, or in any other way for almost a century makes no sense. The award has no purpose except to restrict competition and is contrary to public policy.”

Although The Weinsteins have a built up a reputation for bullying plenty of people in Hollywood over the years, I have to agree that the lawsuit seems a bit ridiculous. Some believe that this was a response to TWC’s own initial objection to a Warner Brothers film being called The Good Lie, which they thought was too similar to The Good Life. A recent letter from WB’s attorney also calls out other times where The Weinsteins have abused the title registry and used it to their advantage.

Lee Daniels himself has made an appeal to Warner Brothers to drop the lawsuit but so far no one is budging. On the one hand, the movie is potentially getting some extra publicity out of this, but a title change this late in the game could also hurt their marketing campaign and, as a result, their box office numbers. Do you think they should be forced to rename The Butler? In general, do you find it confusing when multiple movies share the same title?