The Disney Empire strikes back against a car wash far, far away

Drive into a car wash in Santiago in Chile, and Darth Vader may empty the ashtray.

Chewbacca may be on hand to do the vacuuming, and Boba Fett might be manning the register.

This, Disney says, is infringement.

Lucasfilm, the billion-dollar Disney-owned film and production company behind the “Star Wars” franchise, is suing the owner of Star Wash in Santiago, arguing that the small business is stealing its trademarks, potentially leading customers to associate the car wash with the “Star Wars” brand.

“They say our name ‘Star Wash’ leads to confusion as someone can come with the intention to buy a movie, a helmet, or a figure they sell,” car wash owner Matias Jara told Reuters.

“This is not the case. We have a car wash named ‘Star Wash,’ as it’s a stellar wash.

“We don’t make movies or sell their products or anything like that.”

Jara is contesting the suit, arguing that the name is different enough from the movie franchise to avoid copyright infringement and confusion.

“Of course this lawsuit is affecting us. We’re a small business and we’re spending on things we hadn’t budgeted for,” Jara said in an interview.

The suit was filed last month after Jara tried to register “Star Wash” with the Chilean patent authority but was unable to because of the legal filing. Lucasfilm has not to date commented publicly on the matter.

When social media caught hold of the news, the issue prompted Disney critics to take lampoon the multi-billion dollar company for picking on the small guy. (Forbes estimates that Lucasfilm founder George Lucas’ net worth is $5.1 billion. Disney bought the franchise for over $4 billion.) “Really scraping the bottom of the barrel, huh Disney?” wrote one. Others noted that Disney has lost a reported $1 billion recently on movie flops and joked it’s trying to earn it back by suing the Star Wash.

Through the years, the “Star Wars” franchise has found itself involved in several lawsuits around the use of its name and branding. After purchasing Lucasfilm, Disney released several Star Wars movies — among them “The Force Awakens” (2015), “Rogue One” (2016), “The Last Jedi” (2017), and “The Rise of Skywalker” (2019) — along with numerous spinoff TV shows such as “The Mandalorian.”