On Oct. 9, the day before the launch, Warner Bros. Discovery contacted Alcon to request the ability to use specific images and clips from “Blade Runner 2049” for Tesla’s presentation. Alcon Co-CEO Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson “refused WBD’s request, objecting to their film being affiliated in any way with Tesla, Musk or any Musk-owned company,” according to the company. The lawsuit alleges that neither Warner Bros. Pictures nor any other WBD entity “has or ever had sufficient rights to allow Tesla to exploit ‘BR2049’ or any of its elements, marks or goodwill in connection with the globally livestreamed cybercab reveal event.”

They made the presentation and the day before asked for permission to use it. In another place in the article, Alcon stated that the price they charge to use their IP tends to run in the eight figure range.

I can understand Musk and Tesla doing this. But I’m really surprised a Warner Bros studio thought they could pull it off without getting sued.

This was also good.

Alcon’s suit said that in addition to “more ordinary commercial issues, there is the problematic Musk himself. Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account. If, as here, a company or its principals do not actually agree with Musk’s extreme political and social views, then a potential brand affiliation with Tesla is even more issue fraught.”