Now, you might be thinking, “Who would actually be tricked into thinking this is a Choose Your Own Adventure-licensed program?” After all, the brand appears nowhere in the credits or title. And, of course, Chooseco does not own the concept of interactive, choice-based programming. Granted, the exact phrase is uttered during the film. The main character, Stefan, describes the book he is adapting into a video game as “a Choose Your Own Adventure book.”  That said, it’s not found in the trailer nor any of the advertising that we’ve seen.

Sometimes, product placement deals help finance films.

On the other hand, however, it’s not uncommon for production company lawyers to “clear” uses of brands, products, and logos in feature films. Sometimes, product placement deals help finance films. Think of Peter Parker using Bing 3 freaking times in The Amazing Spider-Man, or Chris’ prominently featured Microsoft phone in Get Out. Other times, lawyers are concerned over whether a brand is used in a disparaging way. As unsettling as it is to consider, the iconic DeLorean in Back to the Future may have been chosen because the company went out of business 3 years prior, enabling the studio to joke about its unreliability without fear of retribution.

When viewed from this perspective, the lawsuit makes a bit more sense. The “grim content” of Bandernsatch, according to Chooseco, tarnishes their famous trademark. Meanwhile, Netflix is likely to argue that the main character simply uses the words in a generic, descriptive manner. While Netflix might be correct, it’s worth pointing out that the script easily could have been re-written any number of ways to convey the same ideas without using the exact words in the exact order. Also working against Netflix is the fact that their own closed captions capitalize the first letter of each word in the phrase. We reserve first letter capitalization for “proper” nouns and adjectives. Trademarks, generally speaking, fall into this category.

Netflix’s own closed captions capitalize the first letter of each word

Of course, nothing is conclusive at this stage, and Netflix has a reputation for settling lawsuits quickly and quietly. Thus, it’s unlikely that any of these legal issue get extensively litigated. However, it is worth pointing out the irony that Bandersnatch is the subject of an IP battle while the story itself involves a programmer creating a video game adaptation of a book someone else wrote without any discussion over whether permission was ever granted or who owns the adaptation rights in the first place …