SF Signal: Lucas Sues Former Costume Designer

Lucas Sues Former Costume Designer

Andrew Ainsworth, the man who helped to design the Star Wars Stormtrooper, is being sued by George Lucas over his replica costumes.

Lucas, who has made an estimated $3.5 billion fortune from his series of sci-fi films and related merchandise, sued his former designer when he discovered that Mr Ainsworth was reproducing costumes of Stormtroopers — the distinctive foot soldiers used by the evil Empire to crush rebel forces.

Mr Ainsworth told The Times that he would contest the action because he believed that he held the intellectual rights to the design. Andrew Hobson, a solicitor who has discussed the deposition with Mr Ainsworth but will not be acting for him on the case, said that he had seen no evidence that Ainsworth had surrendered his design rights. “In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the designer is the first owner of the copyright,” he said.