You thought you knew Batman.  Apparently the billionaire playboy turned crime fighter is a southeastern city in Turkey.  Mayor Hüseyin Kalkan is suing Christopher Nolan, the director of the “The Dark Knight” and “Batman Begins” for infringing on the city’s name.

“The royalty of the name ‘Batman’ belongs to us … There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us,” said Kalkan to the Do?an news agency.  He claims citizens are not able to use the town name for businesses.

Kalkan likely has no merit, one because he is suing Nolan, not DC Comics, who own the copyright and trademark on Batman, or Warner Bros. who made the movie; and two because local regions cannot be registered as brand names in Turkey.  Though I do think local businesses should be able to use their town name without legal threats from DC (only one account this might have happened), this is more an example of a major overstating intellectual property rights and suing the wrong person.