Breaking Bad fans celebrate Walt and Jesse’s return. Better call Saul with a taxing lawsuit

Breaking Bad fans celebrate Walt and Jesse's return. Better call Saul with a taxing lawsuit

Better Call Saul is now only two weeks away from completing its wildly ambitious and exceedingly excellent trip into Albuquerque’s underworld in the pre-Breaking Bad years. The timelines have all now converged with Episode 611. “Breaking Bad.”Just as fans could finally celebrate wholeheartedly, so too Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston are finally getting their long-awaited revenge.Of Television icons Walter White, Jesse PinkmanWithin Saul’s world, the AMC drama was surprisingly (and perhaps on-brandedly) hit with a lawsuit over an episode that aired earlier this season.

AMC Networks and Sony Pictures Better Call Saul’s producers were namechecked in a lawsuit filed by the company Liberty Tax Service, which is suing on the grounds of trade dress and trademark infringement. According to The company is now pursuing legal dramas for its shareholders “intentional misuse” in depicting Betsy and Craig Kettleman’s company Sweet Liberty Tax Services, which was introduced to the show in The first half of the seasonWith Episode 602 “Carrot and Stick.”

Liberty Tax Service continues to claim that the show is responsible. “dilution, defamation, disparagement and injurious falsehoods” over how the fictional company was depicted, as headed up by the money-hungry and embezzlement-friendly Kettleman family. The real-world tax company claims that there are similarities beyond the name. Better Call SaulTeam intentionally copied Liberty Tax logo and style. This includes imagery that involves the Statue of Liberty and the American flag.

Here’s some specific language from the lawsuit implying the AMC drama’s intent.

There were many names that Defendants could use for the tax business depicted in Episode 2. They chose not to be original and instead stole the Liberty Tax trademarks. These trademarks have been around for more than 25 years. Then they added the word “Liberty Tax” to make it look like a real Liberty Tax location. ‘Sweet’ in front of Liberty Tax’s trademark.

At this point, it doesn’t appear as if AMC Networks, Sony Pictures, or any of Better Call Saul’s producers have spoken out about the lawsuit’s existence, which is understandable. It’s hard to tell just how seriously they’ll take the new filing, since it doesn’t seem likely that any one particular tax company has ultimate rights over using the Statue of Liberty or other American iconography in its logos and such. To me, the Kettlemans’ company looked like 100 other small-scale tax assistance operations, but that’s apparently not reflective of reality, or else Liberty Tax Service might have 100 other lawsuits on the table.

As fans will no doubt remember, Sweet Liberty Tax Services was the very place where Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman procured the inflatable Statue of Liberty that stands atop the character’s strip mall law office both in the prequel and in Breaking Bad proper. It is also where the Emmy-nominated Rhea Gethorn found more of her footing on Jimmy’s shakier side of lawfulness, which inevitably led to all kinds of terrible things like her leaving Jimmy and New Mexico altogether.

While we wait for the outcome of this lawsuit, Better Call Saul’s final episodes will air over the next two Mondays on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET. Watch Aaron Paul live on YouTube Westworld Season 4 on Sunday nights on HBO, and he’ll be seen later this year (or next) in the upcoming season of Netflix’s Black Mirror. Bryan Cranston, meanwhile, has the second and final season of Showtime’s legal-ish drama Your HonorThis fall. Go to our 2022 TV premiere scheduleTo see what else might be on the way.

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