An object lesson in why lawyers should never be allowed to talk to anyone without a marketing handler in tow.
Just to be clear, there are potential issues with what Mike is doing, from representation of implied association (ie it sounding like it’s an official, supported by Marvel event) through to liability (although that’s not really a Marvel issue unless you’re being REALLY strict - which, of course, is what you pay lawyers to be). While Mike organising the screening through Paramount, I’m assuming that he organised it as a “company screening” or “comic book clubs and fans” event through the group sales site, rather than as a media event.
But even so, this is a clear case where an informal phone call should have been made, rather than a lawyer’s letter. The fact that such a call wasn’t made is a failure of both legal process and marketing. Someone from Marvel calling Mike, explaining the issues, and just offering to do it as a free “TechCrunch in association with Marvel screening” would have been a far smarter approach, and probably cheaper than the lawyer’s time - and got the company good publicity instead of bad.
UPDATE: Marvel has seen some sense, and is blaming Oracle for the mess-up.
