By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
A California court has put Shelby back in the driver’s seat for brand ownership of the legendary GT500 Shelby Mustang.
In a story that seems like it was pulled from a film script, the Shelby Trust has been fighting for a decade to win back its trademark, which was claimed by the producer of three Hollywood films that featured the car.
It all relates to the films Gone in 60 Seconds, The Junkman, and Deadline Auto Theft, all of which featured a yellow and black Shelby GT500 code-named ‘Eleanor’. The films were all produced by H.B. (Toby) Halicki, and after his death his widow claimed that all the cars referred to as Eleanor appearing across the four above-mentioned movies comprised a single copyrightable character belonging to her, and that her purported character copyright prohibited the Shelby Trust from licensing other people and companies to manufacture, sell or auction Shelby GT500s.
However, the Halickis did not design or manufacture the vehicles, which were, of course, famously designed by the race car designer Carroll Shelby. What did happen was that the rare GT500s were featured in both Gone in 60 Seconds and Deadline Auto Theft, and later, in 1983, one of the beaten up yellow and black prop cars from Gone in 60 Seconds was shown in The Junkman.
In the 2000 Hollywood Pictures’ remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, the code name Eleanor was used to refer to rare Shelby GT500 cars, one of which was grey and black and the other which was rusted and paintless.
However, Denise Halicki insisted that she and her late husband owned the trademark, and she even sued or threatened to sue a number of Shelby GT500 vintage manufacturers, customers and auction houses. Essentially, she claimed their cars violated her alleged copyright interests because they looked like the grey and black Eleanor car from the 2000 Hollywood Pictures remake film, “which in fact was repeatedly identified in the movie as a Shelby GT500.”
The Shelby Trust says it was thus forced to sue Halicki to protect its licensees and owners of the Shelby GT500.
In November 2022 the court rejected Halicki’s claim that she could charge fees from manufacturers and owners of the GT500, and ruled that the Eleanor code-named vehicles shown in the Gone in 60 Seconds, The Junkman and Deadline Auto Theft movies are not deserving of any “character” copyright protection. Based on its independent review of the movies in question, the court found various of Mrs. Halicki and her counsel’s representations about the movies to be “plainly false” or “an embellishment, to say the least.”
This year, following trial, the court also rejected Mrs. Halicki’s fallback argument that a 2007 settlement agreement somehow prevented the Shelby Trust and its licensees from selling newly manufactured Shelby GT500s made under license to Carroll Shelby Licensing. The court rejected Mrs. Halicki’s contract arguments, stating that Halicki’s theories were “untethered to the text of the contract.” The court also left the door open for Shelby to sue in the future should Mrs. Halicki attempt to impede the lawful commerce of Shelby vehicles in the future.
Carroll Shelby Licensing CEO M. Neil Cummings, who is also a co-trustee of the Shelby Trust, said he’s pleased with the court’s decision and happy for all Shelby customers and the Shelby legacy.
“Shelby was compelled to take this action to protect our valued licensees and Shelby GT500 owners,” said Cummings. “We can finally tell them that Mrs. Halicki has absolutely no right to complain about or file a lawsuit based upon the looks of any car licensed by the Shelby Trust. The true worth of all vintage Shelby GT500s is now secure with this news.”
For more information about the Shelby companies or licensing opportunities, call (310) 914-1843, or visit https://www.shelby.com/carrollshelbylicensing