By DAVID PORTER, Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the widow of automaker John DeLorean over royalties stemming from the “Back to the Future” movies.
Sally DeLorean claimed a Texas company using the DeLorean name had illegally accepted royalties from Universal Pictures for the promotional use of images of the iconic car. But a judge ruled Friday that a 2015 settlement agreement over trademarks prohibited her from suing for the royalties.
The sleek, angular car with gull-wing doors was featured in the movie franchise starring Michael J. Fox about a kid who travels back in time to engineer his parents’ meeting.
In her lawsuit filed in April, Sally DeLorean, who lives in New Jersey, claimed the Texas-based DeLorean Motor Co. had illegally profited from a 1989 agreement between her late husband and Universal. That agreement gave John DeLorean and his heirs 5 percent of net receipts for any merchandising and promotions that featured the car and logo “as a key component.”
The Texas company isn’t affiliated with the one John DeLorean started, but under the 2015 settlement agreement was allowed to use the DeLorean name and trademarks.
Sally DeLorean argued that the 2015 settlement didn’t transfer contractual rights to the company, but U.S. District Judge Jose Linares disagreed.
John Z. DeLorean left General Motors in the 1970s to start his own company and eventually produced the distinctive DMC 12, which became known simply as “the DeLorean.” Only about 9,000 of the cars were produced before the company went bankrupt in the early 1980s, but it attained cult status due to its inclusion in the “Back to the Future” movies.
One of three remaining DeLoreans from the movies was sold for $541,000 in 2010.
DeLorean died in 2005 at age 80. The former Sally Baldwin was his fourth wife. At the height of his celebrity, he was married to model Cristina Ferrare; before that he was married to model/actress Kelly Harmon, sister of Mark Harmon.
