Star Wars – may the IP be with you

We look at the different types of intellectual property linked to the Star Wars brand and how these intellectual property rights have been exploited to create probably the most successful franchise of all time.

You must have been living in a different galaxy if you weren’t somehow swept up in Star Wars mania over the Christmas holidays. The new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, smashed box office records all over the world when it was released late in December 2015, with global ticket sales of $529m (£355m) in its debut weekend. It is also reported to have had the biggest opening day and Saturday receipts in UK and Ireland box office history. At the time of writing, total global sales since release are said to have reached a whopping $1.6bn.

And that is just the cinema! The entire Star Wars franchise is probably the most lucrative franchise in the world, generating in the region of $30 billion in revenue over the past 38 years. The Force Awakens is expected to be its biggest money spinner yet. Disney clearly knew it was on to a good thing when it acquired Lucasfilm (which included the entire Star Wars franchise), the company behind the Star Wars films, from founder George Lucas himself in 2012 for $4.05bn (£2.5bn) – a bargain it turns out when you consider the mind boggling revenue figures already associated with this film – and that’s even before the DVD sales and published merchandise and licensing revenue.

Please click here to read the full article which looks at the different types of intellectual property linked to the Star Wars brand and how these intellectual property rights have been exploited to create probably the most successful franchise of all time.