Shelby Wins Legal Battle Over the ‘Eleanor’ Gone in 60 Seconds Car

When it comes to iconic movies with an automotive theme, one of the best in our opinion was the modern remake of “Gone in 60 Seconds” with Nicholas Cage. While Nick Cage may have played the lead role in the film, we all know that the real star of the show was a lady named Eleanor, which was a Shelby GT500 in Gray and Black. The car was Nick Cage’s white whale, and it played a prominent role in the movie’s conclusion.

The success of the remake pushed the Shelby GT500s back into the spotlight, and it’s no surprise that fans of the car and the movie would want to build their own replicas and tributes to the Eleanor car featured in the film. Carroll Shelby Licensing saw potential in these replicas and actually began to manufacture new versions of the Shelby GT500.

The 2000 version of the movie was actually a remake of the 1974 film by the same name and it was produced by Toby Halicki who also made “The Junkman” (1982) and “Deadline Auto Theft” (1983) with Shelby vehicles playing a role in these films as well. Following the success of the 60 Seconds remake, Halicki’s surviving wife Denise Halicki claimed she owned the copyrights to the “Eleanor” car and began a multi-year legal campaign waged against Shelby GT500 manufacturers, customers, and even auction houses which tried to sell replicas of the Eleanor cars.

Carroll Shelby Licensing, INC and the Shelby Trust were eventually forced to sue Halicki to protect its license and fight back on behalf of their customers. A Federal Court just agreed with them and rejected Halicki claims, saying the cars shown in the four movies were not deserving of any “character” copyright protections.

While this wasn’t a Corvette-related story, we can’t help but be facinated with the case as it pertains to the right for enthusiasts to build a tribute vehicle. Below is the official press release from Shelby which outlined the case and shared the conclusion of the court. Shelby is also free to sue Mrs. Halicki in court should there be a continued effort to impede the lawful commerce by the Shelby organization.

SHELBY’S LEGAL BATTLE OVER THE “ELEANOR” CAR IS OVER AND SHELBY WON!

LOS ANGELES – November 9, 2023 – In what has been a decade long battle between the Shelby Trust, owner of “Shelby” trademarks and trade dress relating to internationally known and respected Shelby vehicles, and Denise Halicki, surviving spouse of H.B. “Toby” Halicki, producer of the 1974 “Gone in 60 Seconds” film, the 1982 “The Junkman” film, and the 1983 “Deadline Auto Theft film, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has finally and decisively placed Shelby in the driver’s seat.

Multiple fungible yellow and black Mustangs code-named “Eleanor” appeared in each of Mr. Halicki’s Gone in 60 Seconds and Deadline Auto Theft films, and one of the beaten up yellow and black prop cars from Gone in 60 Seconds was shown in The Junkman. In the 2000 Hollywood Pictures’ remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, the code name “Eleanor” was used to refer to rare Shelby GT500 cars, one of which was grey and black and the other of which was rusted and paintless. Mrs. Halicki claimed that all these multiple cars referred to as “Eleanor” appearing across the four above-mentioned movies comprised a single copyrightable character belonging to her and that her purported character copyright somehow prohibited the Shelby Trust from licensing other people and companies to manufacture, sell or auction Shelby GT500s.

Mrs. Halicki went so far as to sue and/or threaten to sue Shelby GT500 vintage manufacturers, customers and auction houses, because she claimed their cars violated her alleged copyright interests – in a purported “Eleanor” character because they looked like the grey and black “Eleanor” car from the 2000 Hollywood Pictures remake film, “which in fact was repeatedly identified in the movie as a Shelby GT500.” The Shelby Trust was thus forced to sue to protect its licensees and loyal Shelby GT500 owners.

In November 2022, the Court rejected Mrs. Halicki’s longstanding practice of trying to extract money from Shelby GT500 vintage manufacturers and car owners based on a nonexistent copyright and decisively ruled that the Eleanor code named vehicles shown in the Gone in 60 Seconds, The Junkman and Deadline Auto Theft movies are NOT deserving of any “character” copyright protection.

The Court, in a meticulous 41-page opinion, criticized Mrs. Halicki and her counsel for misleading prior courts through their “unfortunate practice of . . . embellish[ing] facts in their briefing” and causing “factual inaccuracies” to make their way into a Ninth Circuit opinion “that likely assumed the facts were true” when they were not. Based on its independent review of the movies in question, the Court found various of Mrs. Halicki and her counsel’s representations about the movies to be “plainly false” or “an embellishment, to say the least.”

After trial in 2023, the Court rejected Mrs. Halicki’s fallback argument, that a 2007 settlement agreement somehow prevented the Shelby Trust and its licensees from selling newly manufactured Shelby GT500s made under license to Carroll Shelby Licensing. The Court rejected Mrs. Halicki’s contract arguments, stating that Mrs. Halicki’s theories were “untethered to the text of the contract.” The Court also left the door open for Shelby to sue in the future should Mrs. Halicki attempt to impede the lawful commerce of Shelby vehicles in the future.

M. Neil Cummings, Esq., CEO of Carroll Shelby Licensing, Inc., and Co-Trustee of the Shelby Trust who has overseen the entire process, is very pleased with the Court’s decision and happy for all Shelby customers and the Shelby legacy.

“Shelby was compelled to take this action to protect our valued licensees and Shelby GT500 owners,” said Mr. Cummings. “We can finally tell them that Mrs. Halicki has absolutely no right to complain about or file a lawsuit based upon the looks of any car licensed by the Shelby Trust. The true worth of all vintage Shelby GT500s is now secure with this news.”

Source:
Carroll Shelby Licensing

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