A couple in Suffolk have been targeted by legal action from the Warner Bros. film studio and the estate of J. R. R. Tolkien after attempting to build a Hobbit-style house at the campsite they operate.
Following legal action, Jan and Ed Lengyel are having to remove any references to the famous literary work, which was adapted for an international film franchise, from their project.
The Warner Bros. complaint meant that the couple’s campaign to incorporate the new building as part of their upmarket camping business was also pulled from the internet.
As Warner Bros. did not want any Hobbit references to be included in relation to the project and its online material, because it infringed on their copyrights and trademarks, the couple edited all content associated with the scheme accordingly.
However, after changing the name of the construction to “Poddit Hole”, and claiming that it is located in “Centre-Earth” as opposed to Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, lawyers then told the campsite owners to remove all words that rhymed with Hobbit.
Mr Lengyel said: “We are not trying to damage their brand or do anything offensive and there’s a lot of local and national interest in the project.”
The Hobbit trademark and copyrights have been the subject of previous legal action in the UK.
In a similar case, a small pub in Southampton, which had used the Hobbit name for almost 20 years, was recently told to change it to avoid further legal consequences.