Michael Elkin, managing partner of Winston & Strawn's New York office, was quoted in E!Online's August 4 article titled "Did Inception Really Rip Off Scrooge McDuck?" The article discusses the similarities between Uncle Scrooge in The Dream of a Lifetime, a Donald Duck comic, and writer-director Christopher Nolan's Inception. Although both the movie and comic deal with dream invasion and thought manipulation, it is unlikely that any lawsuits will result. Even if Nolan had seen the comic, Mr. Elkin states that it would not constitute copyright infringement in a court of law. He explains that when it comes to rip-offs, one cannot copyright an idea, only an expression of an idea.

Mr. Elkin is a member of the firm's intellectual property department where he focuses on sophisticated legal issues involving emerging technologies.