Burning Man considers legal action against Quizno's

Burning Man isn't laughing at a new Quizno's advertisement.

The toasted sandwich company published a parody video, "Out of the Maze and into the Playa," on YouTube earlier this week, a day after the weeklong utopian arts celebration in Northern Nevada's Black Rock Desert concluded on Monday. The plot sends the characters of the "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials," a not-so-well reviewed science fiction thriller to be released later this month, to Burning Man as a test of character.

"Welcome to Burning Man. The world outside is hanging on by a very thin, non-GMO, cruelty-free, organic hemp thread. Beyond this tent flap lies the beginning of your new lives as Burners," a Burner says to the characters at the beginning of the video.

Burning Man takes issue with the clip and is considering legal action, not because of the mockery it makes of the more than 70,000-person annual event but because the video is theft of the event's intellectual property, according to Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham.

"We are pretty proactive about protecting our 10 principles, one of which is decommodification," Graham said. "We get a quite a number of requests each year from companies wanting to gift participants with their product or to capture imagery or video of their products at the event, and we turn them all down."

Denver, Colo.-based Quizno's did not reach out to Burning Man prior to the publication of its advertisement, Graham said, and Burning Man has not yet contacted the sandwich chain.

"We'll be coordinating with our legal team to see what action we can take," Graham said.

Quizno's representatives could not be immediately reached Thursday for comment.

It is not the first time that the San Francisco-based nonprofit has slapped the wrists of an outside entity for abuse of intellectual property.

Burning Man aims to protect its community from "exploitation and commodification, whether deliberate or accidental" by limiting the use of photos and videos from the event, along with Burning Man's most recognizable words, symbols and designs, according to the Burning Man website.

Burning Man's busiest time of year, when it comes to defending decommodification, is immediately after the Burn, Graham said, when companies and individuals attempt to market their products by paring them with Burning Man content.

"It's usually solved with a phone call or an email," Graham said, noting that this is not a first.

While such matters usually do not reach litigation, Burning Man has taken it to legal action in the past, in one case against Girls Gone Wild, a film company that focuses on topless women. Burning Man won the lawsuit against Girls Gone Wild, Graham said.

Burning Man reaches out to a lot of companies, Graham said, and informs them of the principles of Burning Man and why the company's material clashes with those principles. Burning Man makes an effort to support certain businesses that serve the Burner community, many of them Reno-based, by promoting them in one of Burning Man's annual newsletters each year before the event.

Burning Man had not taken any legal action against Quizno's as of Thursday evening.