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ARTICLE · 18 JANUARY 2016

Star Wars - May The IP Be With You

Fieldfisher
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You must have been living in a different galaxy if you weren't somehow swept up in Star Wars mania over the Christmas holidays

United KingdomIntellectual Property
Leighton Cassidy
Leighton Cassidy
Rebecca Pakenham-Walsh
Rebecca Pakenham-Walsh

You must have been living in a different galaxy if you weren't somehow swept up in Star Wars mania over the Christmas holidays. The new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, smashed box office records all over the world when it was released late in December 2015, with global ticket sales of $529m (£355m) in its debut weekend. It is also reported to have had the biggest opening day and Saturday receipts in UK and Ireland box office history. At the time of writing, total global sales since release are said to have reached a whopping $1.6bn.

And that is just the cinema! The entire Star Wars franchise is probably the most lucrative franchise in the world, generating in the region of $30 billion in revenue over the past 38 years. The Force Awakens is expected to be its biggest money spinner yet. Disney clearly knew it was on to a good thing when it acquired Lucasfilm (which included the entire Star Wars franchise), the company behind the Star Wars films, from founder George

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