Arnold Schwarzenegger Sues Company For $10m Over Lookalike Robot

PA/Orion Pictures

Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly suing the manufacturers of a robot, which is said to use his likeness and voice, for more than $10 million (£7.7 million).

The actor says he didn’t give his permission for Russian based tech company Promobot to create a robot based on his likeness, which is being used at public events to promote its Android Robo-C.

With alarming resemblance to Arnie’s hair, square jawline and scarily realistic skin, the robot – which looks like Arnie’s head and shoulders on a plinth – is being used to show how the company can create custom service robots to look and appear like a person of your choice.

According to TMZ, the legal suit says Schwarzenegger, who is also a California governor, is strict when it comes to allowing people to use his face for advertising purposes, because ‘such activity diminishes his hard-earned and well-deserved reputation as a major motion picture star’.

The Austrian native is said to have been asked to take a photograph with the robot in St Petersburg in 2019, but he refused. Now, his lawyers say he has become the ‘unwilling face’ of the product, which he wants no involvement with.

PA Images

However, the legal suit goes on to say Promobot continued to use the robot for promotional purposes, including at Consumer Technology Association’s conference (CES) in Las Vegas in January this year.

Schwarzenegger’s lawyer, Marty Singer, is said to have sent a cease and desist letter to the company, asking it to stop promoting the product using his face.

It’s alleged to company responded and said it would stop, before going on to use the bot once more at the New York Toy Fair at the end of February, which is what prompted the actor to file the legal suit.

Orion Pictures

Arnie is also requesting an injunction to block Promobot from being allowed to use his face and voice, in addition to any profits made from the robot and any punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

Singer is said to have made it clear he’s determined to win the case, having won similar cases in the past, such as that of Priscilla Presley – who he said is ‘far less commercially valuable’ than Schwarzenegger.

Promobot is yet to publicly respond to the lawsuit.

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Emma Rosemurgey

Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.