DeLorean Estate Alleges ‘Back to the Future’ Royalties Were Improperly Distributed

In 2015 the estate of John DeLorean and the unaffiliated DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) reached an agreement that divvied up the intellectual property between the two parties. DMC received the rights to the DeLorean Motor Company’s name, trademarks, and logo while the estate received the rights to John DeLorean’s name and personal depictions. However, the agreement made no mention of the 1989 contract between John DeLorean and Universal Pictures (Universal) to use the iconic time-traveling DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future on merchandise and for advertising purposes.

The contract stipulated that John DeLorean (who passed away in 2005) would receive 5% net receipts of the use of the famous movie car.  According to the estate’s complaint, DMC allegedly violated the 2015 agreement by representing itself to Universal as the owner of the DeLorean name. A settlement conference was scheduled for July 10, 2018

See Cozen O’Connor, DeLorean Estate Alleges ‘Back to the Future’ Royalties Were Improperly Distributed, Lexology, July 16, 2018.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.) for bringing this article to my attention.