No SpielBurgers for you! Steven Spielberg Shuts Down Unauthorized Use of His Name

Last week, Carl’s Jr. announced that in honor of Steven Spielberg’s new movie, Ready Player One, they would change the name of their Charbroiled Sliders to SpielBurgers.” They tweeted: “@StevenSpielberg hasn’t signed off yet, but we’re pretty sure he’ll be down with it.”

In fact, Spielberg was not down with it. He posted a video on Twitter politely declining the honor: It’s recently come to my attention that Carl’s Jr. wants to rename their Charbroiled Sliders SpielBurgers.’ And they’re pretty good, but I’m passing. Cease and desist. You can’t do it. Sorry, guys.”

Carl’s Jr. took the rejection well, focusing on the positive: OMG Spielberg likes our Charbroiled Sliders!” Although this was probably a successful campaign for the company, it could have easily turned out worse. As we’ve noted before, some celebrities respond to the unauthorized use of their names less politely. For example, when a clothing company played on Don Henley’s name and encouraged people to Don a Henley,” the famous musician filed a lawsuit against them.

Some celebrities are willing to play along with these stunts. For example, Mark Hamill tweeted that he was completely open to the idea of HAMILLBURGERS” #NoShameNoGain.” But, if you guess wrong, gambling on whether a celebrity is going to be OK with your use of their name can be very costly.

For a more in-depth analysis of these issues, check out Part I, Part II, and Part III of a series on Right of Publicity claims on Drye Wit.