More updates have surfaced regarding the Cars 2 lawsuit that screenwriter Jake Mandeville-Anthony brought against Disney/Pixar, claiming that Pixar stole the idea for Cars from him. Last week, The Walt Disney Company responded to the lawsuit, denying “each and every one of Plaintiff’s legal claims concerning purported copyright infringement and substantial similarity of the parties’ respective works.”
While Disney had originally applied for an extension of their time to respond, on Wednesday a judge rejected their application.
According to sources, Mandeville-Anthony registered his works with the U.S. Copyright Office in September 2010, almost 18 years after he claims he created them – and a mere six months before he filed his lawsuit.
Additionally, Mandeville-Anthony claimed in his lawsuit that Disney/Pixar received copies of his work in 1992, but there are no records showing this to be the case.
While Disney has offered to screen Cars 2 immediately for Mandeville-Anthony and his attorneys, a hearing for the screenwriter’s motion to obtain a pre-release copy of the film remains scheduled for June 6.
Once the film has been released, Disney has said they will request that the lawsuit be dismissed “with prejudice,” which means the case can never be refiled. If this does not go through, the case will be tried by a California jury.
