"Twilight's" global box office take to date: $3 billion
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 infringes 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.
Over the years, Summit has branched out into the fragrance market with licensing deals.
According to the complaint lodged in California federal court on Friday against Preferred Fragrance, “Defendant is also using a bottle that is similar to the shape of the bottle for Summit’s IMMORTAL TWILIGHT fragrance and Defendant’s various versions of packaging for the MOONLIGHT fragrance appear to track the color palettes for each of the Twilight Motion Pictures.”
Here’s the rest of the lawsuit.
Summit is still also fighting in court the company, Bath & Body Works, over a line of toiletries in a case that’s been going on for more than two years.
In other entertainment law news:
- The trial has begun in Madden Football creator Robin Antonick‘s lawsuit against Electronic Arts. Antonick says he was cut out of royalties on the franchise that’s lasted a quarter century and a jury will consider the question of whether his early work was used in later versions of the game. EA has called his lawsuit “quixotic” without any proof that it has copied any of his code, but a judge allowed the jury to consider the question of whether there was substantial similarity in the “plays and formations” featured in the game.
- Angela Wilder, the ex-wife of Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Famer James Worthy, has backed off a lawsuit that claimed CBS’ The Talk was stolen from her idea about a show revolving around a community of women. Wilder sued Sony for allegedly breaching an implied deal she had by “assisting others in producing and distributing The Talk” without compensating her. The case has now been dismissed. Sony Pictures Television has issued a statement that says, “Ms. Wilder brought her case in good faith, but after seeing all of the evidence, she decided to voluntarily drop her lawsuit with prejudice. No payment is being made to Ms. Wilder.”
- A filmmaker is suing surviving members of the Grateful Dead, Rhino Entertainment and the band’s other licensing partners. According to the lawsuit, Len Dell’Amico says that he produced and directed all of the band’s films from 1984 to 1991 and had a deal for back-end compensation. He says the deal has been breached by Grateful Dead Productions leasing much of the band’s work to Rhino, including video releases, and says the video companies are infringing his copyrights.
- Janet Nova has been upped to executive vice president and deputy group general counsel at 21st Century Fox. Reporting to the company’s group GC Gerson Zweifach, Nova will be overseeing the legal aspects of the Company’s M&A activity, capital markets transactions, and SEC and stock exchange reporting and advise the Company’s Board committees. Besides working at News Corp. for 16 years, Nova also was the “unsung woman” who intervened before Wendi Deng Murdoch did when a prankster attempted to throw a pie at Rupert Murdoch during testimony before the U.K. Parliament.
