Tolkien Estate sues over Lord of the Rings slot machines

The Tolkien estate and the book’s publishers, HarperCollins, have accused Warner Bros of breaching contractual obligations by sanctioning an array of supposedly unauthorised Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit-themed merchandise.

The estate claims that a decades-old rights agreement only allows Warner Bros to create “tangible” merchandise, such as “figurines, tableware, stationary items, clothing and the like” and does not permit any electrical or digital merchandise to be produced.

The estate wants an injunction against any “intangible” products that infringe the merchandise contract, such as downloadable video games.

The gambling element of some digital and electronic content, particularly online slot machine games, has caused the greatest upset, with the estate believing the association between Tolkien and gambling to have caused “irreparable harm to Tolkien's legacy and reputation and the valuable goodwill generated by his works". They also describe the games as "morally questionable".

Lawyers cite the outrage of Tolkien fans over Lord of the Rings casino gaming within their lawsuit, as many fans wrongly believed the estate to have consented to the commercialisation.

The Tolkien estate originally learnt of the slot machine games through a spam email which was accidentally sent to its lawyer in September 2010. Warner Bros has not yet commented.