Court rules anyone can build iconic Eleanor Mustang after years of legal battles

After years of legal battles, a court has ruled that anyone can build the iconic Eleanor Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds.

Herbie, Lightning McQueen, and even the Batmobile are heavily copyrighted, but the Gone in 60 Seconds Mustang is not seen as a protected character.

The court ruled that the various mustangs featured in four movies between 1974 and 2000 count more as set pieces than copyrightable characters.

This ruling will change a lot when it comes to what counts as an official character when it comes to cars, and because of three distinct reasons, we’re sure to see many copycats out and about on the roads.

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When you think of famous movie cars, you can’t help but think of Doc and Marty’s DeLorean, Herbie the Love Bug or Lightning McQueen, but a lot of people would probably think of the iconic Mustang, Eleanor.

Eleanor was featured across the four Gone in 60 Seconds franchise movies, and even though the same name was used, it’s actually a mixture of Ford and Shelby Mustangs.

It may be the fact that multiple Mustangs played Eleanor that caused the outcome of the copyright-based legal battles.

Denice Halicki, the widow of the creator of the series, H.B. Halicki, claimed that the car company Shelby violated a settlement by producing Mustangs that looked suspiciously like Eleanor.

Shelby countersued Halicki, asking the court to look into the copyright surrounding cars made in the likeness of Eleanor.

The court ruled that, unlike other pop culture cars like Herbie, Eleanor Mustangs are not copyrightable characters for three interesting reasons.

The ruling stated that the Mustang is more of a set piece than a copyrightable character because it doesn’t act independently or have human-like traits – like Herbie.

And it doesn’t hold a consistent design across films like the Batmobile.

The court believed that the look of Eleanor varied too much between movies and lacked a distinct identity. So it’s a bit like James Bond’s Aston Martins, they’re more of a vessel than a story character.

Without getting bogged down in the legalities of copyright law, car enthusiasts are pleased with this ruling because they can now make their own Eleanor copycats without fear of being slapped with a fine.