Warner Brothers is taking French car manufacturer Citroën to court over a potential case of plagiarism and copyright infringement following the unveiling of a brand new concept car designed in association with the developers of Gran Turismo. The “GTbyCITROËN” supercar, a joint effort between the French company and Japanese developers Polyphony Digital, was claimed by Warner Brothers to simply be “a white Batmobile copycat” and simply plagiarised the design of the iconic movie car.

Hit the jump for more details as well as side-by-side comparisons of the two cars.

Recently teased out of secrecy through a video released on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s GT TV service, the GTbyCITROËN is not Polyphony Digital’s first foray into the real world of car design, having previously designed bodykits for Nissan’s line of 350Z sports cars and most recently having developed the electronic dashboard system for the GT-R supercar. However, it is their first collaboration with the French car company, and its oddly-breathtaking looks are not impressing WB’s lawyers.

The comparison image released by Warner Brothers, claiming the likeness is "unarguable".

“I mean, just look at it,” remarked one of WB’s 127-man strong team of lawyers. “Those sunken-in headlamps, the gaping air intakes at the front, the dramatic, swooping bodylines and the ridges along the side. Those are definite Batmobile traits and it’s obvious that Citroën has plagiarised these body details in designing the GTbyCITROËN supercar.”

Legal experts were quick to point out that the car, which will also be available imminently as a free piece of downloadable content for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, is not the only one in the world to feature “gaping air intakes” and “swooping bodylines”. Legal analyst Andrew Checklin had this to say:

Save for a couple of really goddamn ugly cars out there pretty much every car in the world features air-intakes and some form of body styling. This is nothing short of idiocy. WB cannot expect to win.

Citroën were quick to remark that the car was an entirely original design and the first of its kind (the press release stating “[the car is] specifically designed to bring the virtual and real worlds together”), while Polyphony Digital were nothing short of apologetic and offered to include the Batmobile in the next GT5 Prologue update as means of compensation.

WB have stated that they will press on with the lawsuit, despite the fact that the edition of the Batmobile they claim is being copied was featured in Batman: The Movie, the legal rights of which are still retained by 20th Century Fox. As WB does not own the rights (which are restricted to newer franchises) they are not entitled to any sort of compensation. Despite this, they insist they will see the lawsuit through to the end.

As for the rest of us, we can look forward to driving the new GTbyCITROËN supercar in GT5 Prologue in the near future.

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