Narcos: Pablo Escobar’s Brother Threatening to Sue Netflix for $1B

The brother of infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar–the 71-year-old Roberto de Jesus Escobar–has been in an ongoing legal battle with Netflix for almost a year now. Roberto Escobar took issue with Netflix’s semi-biographical show about his brother’s operations Narcos and claimed unspecified intellectual property violations to the tune of an incredible $1B. What’s more, Mr. Escobar demanded that Netflix allow him to review all future episodes of Narcos for accuracy and give a yes or no on the episode. Since the initial demands, Mr. Escobar’s claims have been refined a bit to mostly cover copyright and trademark issues.

This dispute has been catapulted back into the public eye in the last few weeks for two reasons. First, the lawyers for Narcos Productions, LLC–part of Netflix in charge of the show–have challenged a number of trademarks filed by Mr. Escobar on both “Narcos” and “Cartel Wars.” These challenges aren’t particularly surprising given the success of the show and the spin-off mobile game “Cartel Wars;” as well as how weak Mr. Escobar’s claims are. Second, the murder of a location scout for Narcos while in Mexico a few weeks back.

Escobar has been extremely critical of the Narcos show, saying that the show is apparently riddled with inaccuracies and lies. He expressed extreme anger over the show, saying “They are playing me without paying. I am not a monkey in a circus, I don’t work for pennies.” Since the murder of the Narco’s location scout Carlos Portal, Escobar has been coy about the topic. He described filming without authorization of Escobar, Inc. as “very dangerous…especially without our blessing. This is my country.” He has also said that he will “close their little show” if Netflix does not pay him the money he asked for. However, despite these veiled threats, when Escobar’s attorneys were asked about the situation they only said that they had no comment except “Escobar Inc. cooperates with all law enforcement.”

While Escobar’s approach to the situation might be a bit intimidating, it has not cause lawyers for Narcos Productions, LLC to back down much at all. After his initial $1B demands, Escobar went out and applied for trademarks on “Narcos” and “Cartel Wars” on a laundry list of goods and services. Downloadable ringtones, sunglasses, temporary tattoos, sheet music, sunglasses, yoyos, websites, video games (online and offline), board games, Christmas tree ornaments, snow globes, protective pads for skateboarding, basically everything under the sun. This list just scratches the surface of the immense list of uses Escobar claims to have made on the phrases “Narcos” and “Cartel Wars” prior to the show coming out. Netflix has responded in a letter and they are not impressed.

A few months back, Netflix sent a letter to Escobar demanding that he cease use of and abandon his trademark applications for “Narcos” and “Cartel Wars.” This letter has been more recently accompanied by filing an objection to Escobar’s trademark applications a few weeks back, part of an official process of opposing trademark applications going through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. While the opposition is not currently readily available to read, one must imagine that it mirrors at least some of the objections they raised in their original letter to Escobar–primarily fraud. With so many goods and services claimed Netflix argues that many of them are simply untrue, fabrications by Escobar. For example, Escobar claims that he first began operating Narcos websites and offering online game services on January 31st of 1986–before the internet was readily available for consumer use and long before online gaming existed in any shape or form. The letter also points out that the specimen used in Escobar’s registration (a word used for the example of the mark provided with a trademark application) is nearly identical to the logo Netflix uses for its show–so much so as to imply copying.

Escobar himself seems to believe that he will still come out on top in his fight with Netflix. His attorneys have indicated that Netflix may be able to reach some settlement and Escobar himself has said that this means that they accept that he rightfully owns the trademarks he has filed for. This is simply not the case, settlements can come for any number of reasons, including simply avoiding the costs of challenging Escobar’s marks. This is especially true because almost no case in law is a guaranteed slam dunk victory. Let’s take a look at how copyright and trademark law would apply to Mr. Escobar’s claims and see just what kind of case he is likely to have against Netflix

Understanding Escobar’s Copyright and Trademark Cases

To start with, let’s look at the copyright claims here because they are by far the weaker of two weak cases. In order to be valid, a would-be copyright must be original and fixed in a tangible medium.  Originality is fairly low standard, requiring only minimum creativity.  For example, a creative arrangement of phone numbers in a telephone book would be enough to qualify. Fixation only requires you to store your work in a medium that can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated.

Today, copyright protection attaches as soon as you place an original work in a fixed medium–allowing you to stop people from using your work without permission and sue them for actual lost profits based on their actions. Registration provides you with a presumption of validity for your copyright and the ability to sue for statutory damages–which nearly always exceed your actual loss.  However, there is no copyright available for facts. This is for the obvious reason that it would be an absolute mess if one party could own the rights to publish the truth.

With this in mind, Escobar has very nearly no claim for copyright. Not only has he presented absolutely no work which Narcos might have infringed. Narcos is ostensibly a biopic based on the factual life of Pablo Escobar.

Escobar’s trademark claims have slightly more potential. Trademark law is designed to protect the public from confusion as to the source of a good by providing a protected indicator of the source of a good. While trademarking the name of a show with only a few seasons based only on the show is often not available, you better believe merchandise and paraphernalia can be protected by trademark. Generally, trademark protection is gained through registration. However, if somebody used a mark in commerce before you registered your mark, they’ll still have superior rights to yours in the geographic locations they can prove they used their mark prior to you. This will also be limited to the types of goods and services they actually used in commerce prior to your registration. Damages in a trademark infringement case can include profits attributable to infringement (in particularly bad cases of infringement), actual loss of sales or goodwill due to the infringement, and the reasonable rate for a license to the plaintiffs trademark (calculated via the value of the mark when infringement began and presuming both parties agreed the defendant was infringing). These damages can be tripled in cases of willful infringement-situations where the infringer knew of the mark and still violated it.

It’s unlikely Escobar has really used the phrase in all the ways he says he has. However, if he has used them and can establish that use he will have some rights as a prior user–rights he could assert against Netflix.

What are Escobar’s Chances?

Is Escobar going to get a billion dollars from Netflix? No, he’s not, that’s silly. Frankly the number seems pulled from the air and has essentially no basis besides being a nice round number. However, a settlement is far from out of the question. It’s very common for companies to cheaply settle a lawsuit that has even a small chance of success instead of dealing with the risk and expense of pursuing the suit to its completion. However, it might be a little early to expect a settlement at this point.

While Escobar’s trademark applications are still live for now, Netflix is still in the process of an initial challenge to the marks. The opposition itself is quite recent and is unlikely to be resolved for a month or two at the least and a year or more at the most. Until this gets resolved, it seems unlikely there will be a settlement unless it is quite favorable to Netflix. Any copyright claim from Escobar is essentially D.O.A. and even his trademark applications, while not completely without potential, seem riddled with issues that would prevent his registration.

While it hasn’t been brought up by either side, if brought in the right place a right of publicity claim may have some traction for Mr. Escobar if brought on behalf of his brother’s estate. Right of publicity is the right to your own name and image. However, it would have to be the right place because almost everywhere except for California offers no right of publicity after death.

No matter the cause of action, Escobar’s claims here are very thin despite his threats and bravado. While Netflix may yet settle, it won’t be because Escobar has a strong chance of winning any lawsuit against them.