A recent lawsuit over aggressive IP policing on the Twilight brand hasn't tamed Summit Entertainment.
The Lionsgate division has filed a new lawsuit over perfumes that allegedly infringe trademarks relating to its blockbuster franchise. Among the fragrances in dispute are Moonlight Women's Eau De Parfum and Moonlight Ever After Eau De Parfum.
On the cusp of premiering on Showtime, the documentary Venus and Serena has drawn a lawsuit from the United States Tennis Association.
On Friday, the USTA filed a complaint in New York federal court that alleges that filmmakers Maiken Baird and Michelle Major used unauthorized footage in their film about the rise of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. The lawsuit has already been discussed by news outlets like The New York Times, reporting about the copyright allegations, but the other claims could make this dispute worth close attention.
If this was a straight-forward copyright claim about unlicensed footage, a judge would be looking at the "four factors" for determining fair use -- the purpose and character of use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount taken and the effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work.
But there's a few wrinkles in this dispute that transform a typical fair use controversy into a deeper discussion for documentarians and news organizations about access and control.
Julianna Margulies has scored a success in her legal battle with her former manager over commissions, and as a result, will look to win the case on Thursday.
Last year, the The Good Wife star was sued by D/F Management for at least $420,000. The management firm of Steve Dontanville claimed that it was entitled to 10 percent of what she continued to make on shows and for product deals that were negotiated while they were her representatives.
Margulies returned fire with a counterclaim that Dontanville failed to provide her with any writing to memorialize the terms of his firm's engagement. It was a defense based on the statute of frauds which requires that certain contracts be signed and in writing.
In response, D/F Management made a demurrer that challenged this.
On Tuesday, a Los Angeles Superior Court held a hearing and overruled the demurrer. As a result, the parties go to a second round later this week whereby Margulies' attorneys will be seeking summary judgment.
Eunice Huthart, who says she worked as a stunt double for Angelina Jolie, has filed a lawsuit against News Corp. for intercepting her voice-mail messages.
The complaint was filed in California last week and is believed to be the first claim brought by a victim in the U.S. over the ongoing hacking scandal that has been haunting Rupert Murdoch's company.
Michael Rosner, the former general counsel and executive vice president of Relativity Media, is joining Sklar Kirsh in the law firm's corporate department.
Beyonce has wiggled out of a lawsuit brought by a video game company that sued the musician for allegedly backing away from a deal to create a motion-sensing dance game.
The suddenly hot legal issue of internships has spread to the music industry.
On Monday, June 17, a former Atlantic Records intern named Justin Henry brought a proposed class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and others similarly situated against the Warner Music Group. The complaint filed in New York Supreme Court seeks to recover claimed unpaid minimum wages and overtime wages for a class that's believed to be greater than 100 individuals.
The lawsuit comes less than a week since a federal judge in New York ruled that two interns who worked on Fox Searchlight's Black Swan were classified improperly as unpaid interns and were really "employees" covered by federal labor laws. That New York judge also certified a class action against the Fox Entertainment Group. Since the ruling, there's been a proposed class action filed against Conde Nast publications, and now this new lawsuit -- what the plaintiffs are touting as the first to be filed against the music industry business.
William Morris Endeavor has traveled to court to get commissions on Ghost Adventures, the haunted-house reality program currently in its seventh season on the Travel Channel.
According to a lawsuit that was removed to a California federal court last week, WME was the agent for MY Tupelo Entertainment -- the show's production company -- and that before the show premiered in 2008, an executive at Travel Channel agreed to WME's "standard package commission."
The agency says that it got paid its initial fee during the show's first season but has been owed money ever since.
The Travel Channel was acquired by Scripps Networks in 2012 for $103 million. WME now alleges that Scripps has breached a contractual obligation to pay the commission.
In the ongoing legal battle over Aereo, the upstart digital TV distributor won't be able to ask CBS CEO Leslie Moonves questions under oath about how Aereo's presence in the marketplace has affected the network's negotiations with cable and satellite companies.
A recent decision by a magistrate judge to deny Aereo's request to depose the CBS chief executive comes in the midst of a bruising fight in the discovery portion of the litigation. In recent months, most of the attention has been paid to what's been happening at the appellate level -- particularly, Aereo's April victory and the broadcasters' request for a rehearing -- but what's happening at the trial court is important as well.
Aereo and the broadcasters are gearing up for trial over whether Aereo's system of capturing over-the-air TV signals and transmitting them to subscribers' digital devices is copyright infringement. Both sides have brought summary judgment motions with the aim of scoring a pretrial knockout victory, but if U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan determines there's questions that are best left to a jury for answers, expect a trial to happen in the very early months of next year.
On Wednesday, magistrate judge Henry Pitman gave some further clarity on the timetable by ordering that witness depositions must be completed by mid-November, that dispositive motions have to be filed by mid-December and that Judge Nathan's pretrial order would be filed on Jan. 14, 2014.
California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced Friday that her office has filed criminal charges against three Bay Area brothers who allegedly operated websites on which people could watch pirated versions of popular television shows and films, including Fox Searchlight's Black Swan, Warner Bros.' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and Disney's Tangled.
Iran might be considered by some in the United States to be an evil autocratic regime, but at least the country is not prone to Hollywood-style breach of contract lawsuits.
Proving that contracts are important in the land of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Islamic Republic Broadcasting, the 24-hour English news foreign network owned by the Iranian state, is being sued by filmmakers who say that money is owed for work.
A disaster that caught the attention of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has prompted a wrongful-death lawsuit against Discovery Communications.
Last June, a film production crew was taping a pilot for a show that was to be called Brother in Arms. According to a lawsuit filed in Colorado federal court on Thursday, producers were filming the opening sequence of the show, where five individuals were going to walk through a cloud of smoke with weapons.
To pull this off, two pyrotechnic devices are said to have been used. The devices malfunctioned, shooting rockets toward the individuals -- hitting one, a woman named Terry Flanell,and killing her. Her family is now suing over the tragedy.
The entertainment industry was rocked early Thursday by news that News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch had filed for divorce from his wife of 14 years, Wendi Deng.
