Imagine, a bully Hobbit.

Saul Zaentz? Over-the-top artistic property rights lawsuits are what he does!

This isn't the first time he has meddled with Tolkien... and then there's John Fogarty's music...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centerfield_(album)#Legal_issues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgZC4Nt4oXI&feature=related

Bunch of hollywood 1%ers. I hope they back off the pub.. too bad they applied the pressure in the first place

This is what happens when people go into business and don't bother to think things through properly. Here in the US I would have thought some lawyer would have said something to the people starting this business. It's just not the movie, it's also the book and since it's been published since 1937 that unless this pub began before that year, they don't have a prayer and they do NOT have the excuse they never heard of it. I feel sorry for people that get themselves in messes like this but even your very BASIC business person SHOULD know about using the name of copyright things and IF you're going to do it, don't be STUPID enough to use one of the biggest and most popular franchises ever created in the film industry. They didn't even try to change it. They just HAD to use the EXACT name of the book and/or films. If they had tried to use the word as part of another title maybe they would have a leg to stand on, forget it. To make the statement, "what's it hurting?" and not understand how it COULD harm him OR the film means he has NO clue about things. People with business skills this poor shouldn't be in business. I'm shocked they actually did this. At least in the states even the most simplest business person knows about copyright.

Really? Is this really a threat to Hollywood? A small-time pub?

I would be ashamed to be one of those lawyers who have to defend such greed.

Rename the bar "Not the Hobbit"

I'll definitely boycott the movie if they continue with the lawsuit. It's just the name of a pub, not a book, short story, or movie. Once again Hollywood is bullying the little guy.

Any number of Tolkien fans have named businesses based on his books. The article does not specify when the pub received its name, but it would not be surprising to learn it was before the LOTR movies were made. I understand that the license owner wishes to protect his rights, but the bad publicity associated with such actions as this will do more damage to his product than the unlicensed use of the name.

Oh, for crying out loud....!!! BFD! What do thy expect to get out of this... except bad press for Golith picking on a little pub. Not like she has a franchise or something, its a theme.

Unfortunatly, the production company do have the right to sue her over this as wrong as it may sound. If she would have left the name as "The Hobbit" and not had the actual Lord of the Rings-esq theme inside, they wouldn't have had a leg to stand on but since the production company does infact own the rights to the triligy and the Hobbit stories, she would have had to request permission before naming and decorating her Pub. Without said permission, she will lose her case. Copyrights are tricky things and if not handled with care, they can ruin anyone!

Why sue when they could probably buy the whole block? She's doing no harm and why not have a Hobbit inspired Pub around? They should work out a deal.

"The Habit"

Tolkien didn't invent the word hobbit it was made in the writings of Michael Aislabie Denham (d.1859), printed in volume 2 of "The Denham Tracts" [ed. James Hardy, London: Folklore Society, 1895], a compilation of Denham's scattered publications. Denham was an early folklorist who concentrated on Northumberland, Durham, Westmoreland, Cumberland, the Isle of Man, and Scotland. Tolkien was born in 1892, so this word existed in folklore well before he was born.