Oct 21 (Reuters) - Movie and television studio Alcon

Entertainment on Monday sued Tesla and Warner Bros

Discovery ( WBD ) over claims they used images tied to the film

"Blade Runner 2049" to promote Tesla's new autonomous cybercab.

Alcon's California federal lawsuit alleged violations of

U.S. copyright law and accused Tesla of "false endorsement" for

suggesting a relationship between Alcon and the Elon Musk-owned

electric vehicle maker.

"Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to

take Musk's massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious

and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech,

into account," the lawsuit said.

Tesla and Warner Bros did not immediately respond to

requests for comment.

Warner Bros was Alcon's distributor for "Blade Runner 2049",

which won two 2018 Academy Awards and starred Ryan Gosling and

Harrison Ford in the highly anticipated sequel to the 1982 cult

classic Blade Runner.

Alcon said it had refused a request from Warner Bros to use

images from the firm for Tesla's Oct. 10 live-streamed cybercab

unveiling. Tesla then used images created with artificial

intelligence that mirrored the movie for its cybercab event, the

lawsuit said.

In a statement, Alcon said the defendants' "conduct is

likely to cause confusion among Alcon's 'Blade Runner' brand

partner customers, including those it is partnering with for its

upcoming 'Blade Runner 2099' series for Amazon Prime."

The lawsuit did not name specific damages but said Alcon had

spent hundreds of millions of dollars building the Blade Runner

2049 brand, and said the "financial magnitude of the

misappropriation here was substantial."