According to The Hollywood Reporter:
The fight over "Evil Dead" rights erupted in part because of Rami's ambivalence until late.
In preparing Evil Dead 4: Consequences, Award Pictures went to the trademark office and argued that since Rami's first film came out in 1981, his company exhibited a lack of control over it, allowing it to be used as titles in 20 other motion pictures. Additionally, Award pointed to Raimi's comment in a 2000 book that he would never do a sequel as proof that the "Evil Dead" trademark was abandoned.
Renaissance challenged that assessment in a federal lawsuit.
Rami's company then attempted to put proceedings at a trademark trial board on hiatus pending the outcome of the civil lawsuit. Award objected, saying that it was having difficulty finding legal represention to defend the claims in federal court because IP lawyers were asking for tens of thousands of dollars in retainer fees to handle the case.
Award said that paying lawyers wouldn't be a problem if Renaissance hadn't interfered wtih Evil Dead 4: Consequences. Until then, MacCrae's company purportedly had a multi-million dollar financing deal with Anchor Bay, which was "destroyed" by "fraudulent claims of ownership of the rights to The Evil Dead."
Regardless, the inability to retain a lawyer in time to answer Renaissance's lawsuit paved the way for a judge's decision to grant by default a permanent injunction.
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