Star Wash’, a small, family owned car wash in Chile, is being sued by American Media Giant LucasFilm, the company that owns the Star Wars brand, for allegedly plagiarizing of its intellectual property.

Matias Jara, the owner of Star Wash, was in the process of registering his car wash brand with the Chilean patent authority when he received word of the lawsuit against his company from LucasFilm. The Disney-owned firm was intent on stopping the registration of the ‘Star Wash’ name, arguing that the brand could be confused as being affiliated with the ‘Star Wars’ brand.

Mr Jara is contesting the lawsuit claims, stating the name is different enough not to be confused with the LucasFilm property, adding that they are not selling any movies merchandise or branded products. As the Star Wars copyright does not cover car cleaning services, the claims of the Star Wash are legitimate and will be argued in court.

Adding addtiional fuel to the fired up lawsuit, The ‘Star Wash’ Car Wash had been getting a lot of online attention and views by asking its staff to clean vehicles while dressed as iconic Star Wars characters like Chewbacca and Darth Vader. Even the font used for the Star Wash logo is blatantly inspired by the iconic Star Wars logo. Interestingly LucasFilm have reportedly not brought these details up in its lawsuit.

“Of course this lawsuit is affecting us. We’re a small business and we’re spending on things we hadn’t budgeted for,” Matias Jara told reporters, adding that he plans to contest the lawsuit and proceed with the Star Wars-inspired brand strategy.

Jara told the media his Star Wars-themed car wash was inspired by a clever wordplay thought up by his daughter during a family trip to Disneyland. He liked the name ‘Star Wash’ so much that he just had to try the model, and it proved to be quite successful to his business strategy.

Interesting to note that there are other car wash companies who have taken the same brand name “Star Wash” such as “Star Wash Massillon” which may detrimental to the lawsuit. The chilean Star Wash may not be first to take the brand name, but they may be the first to use the LucasFilms Characters to wash the cars.