The new dating series, set to debut in November, is hosted by Harrison, who hosted The Bachelor from 2002-2021.
In a cease-and-desist letter reviewed by Deadline, Ahassim Rashid, VP and intellectual property counsel for Warner Bros Entertainment, owner of The Bachelor, claimed that the teaser for The Vow contained unauthorized uses of the studio’s IP. The attorney cited images of red rose petals “falling in the background with text in the foreground,” and noted that WB had licensed that motif to third parties for separate advertisements and promotion.
The attorney also objected to the use of the words “The Bachelor” in the teaser, followed by the image of a man in a tux holding a rose. Also cited was the image of a “mansion in the background meant to evoke the iconic ‘Bachelor Mansion.'”
Rashid wrote that the teaser “represents a plain attempt to capitalize on and ‘ride on the coattails'” of The Bachelor.
In reply, Fox News Media‘s executive VP and general counsel Katherine Moran Meeks contended that Warner Bros’ attorneys “wrongly assume that Warner Bros. holds any intellectual property rights whatsoever in a falling roses motif or in the words ‘The Bachelor’ when used colloquially to describe a single man.”
In the Warner Bros letter, its attorney wrote that they have “no objection” to Fox and Lionsgate “releasing a dating show hosted by Chris Harrison in and of itself.” But Moran Meeks also claimed that Warner Bros was targeting Harrison in “this malicious and vindictive manner.”
Fox News Media argued that the use of the falling rose petals are scènes à faire, or “stock elements long associated with the romance genre that have featured in films from American Beauty to Moulin Rouge to Beauty and the Beast. The network also contended that the use of the words “The Bachelor” is protected speech. “Even assuming this fleeting use of ‘The Bachelor’ is also a tongue-in-cheek reference to your show, that kind of ‘word-play, ambiguity, irony and allusion’ receives full protection of the First Amendment and cannot support a claim for trademark infringement,” Moran Meeks wrote.
Warner Bros. has yet to comment further. The Hollywood Reporter first reported on the tussle over the new show.
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