Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. v. Unger

In 1957, Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. (plaintiff), through its affiliate Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., released the film The Bridge on the River Kwai (Bridge). Bridge won numerous awards and become known as one of the best films ever made. In 1978, Kurt Unger purchased the rights to a nonfiction book pertaining to some of the allied prisoners of war who were forced to build a Japanese railroad through the jungles of Burma and Thailand in the late stages of World War II. Even though the book contained no plot link to Bridge, Unger considered it as a possible sequel to Bridge. Unger adapted the book to a film he planned to produce entitled Return from the River Kwai (Return) and injected plot links to Bridge that were not in the original book. Unger and a potential distributor then registered the title for Return with the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., and Tri-Star objected to the registrations on the ground that the title was too similar to Bridge to no avail. Tri-Star persisted with its objection through numerous cease-and-desist letters. Before Return was released, Tri-Star and Academy Pictures (A.G.) (plaintiff), who had held certain rights in Bridge, sued Unger for trademark infringement, arguing that Unger’s use of the term “River Kwai” in the title for Return infringed their trademark rights in the title “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and the term “River Kwai” as used in the title of a film, and seeking injunctive relief.