Practice Areas
Media & Entertainment
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February 22, 2012
Canadian Artists Can't Reap Fees Off Online Transfers
The Copyright Board of Canada refused Friday to grant the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada an interim tariff to cover the online delivery of movies, television shows and user-generated content over the Internet by companies like Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc.
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February 22, 2012
Sheen, Asner Among SAG Members Fighting AFTRA Merger
Actors Martin Sheen, Ed Asner and other members of the Screen Actors Guild filed a lawsuit Wednesday in California federal court seeking to block a vote on a proposed merger with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
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February 22, 2012
Wynn's Largest Stockholder Vows Suit Over Cash-Out
Wynn Resorts Ltd.'s top shareholder, who has already sued the casino operator to examine records over his investments, vowed more litigation Tuesday over Steve Wynn's recent move to unilaterally cash out his shares over allegations that he violated anti-corruption laws.
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February 22, 2012
SAG, Sports Unions Dispute EA’s Likeness Win In 3rd Circ.
The Screen Actors Guild and the players’ associations of the major professional sports leagues on Friday asked the Third Circuit to reverse a ruling that the First Amendment protects Electronic Arts Inc. in a proposed class action over EA’s use of college athletes’ likenesses in video games.
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February 22, 2012
Louis Vuitton's Cameo In 'The Hangover' Under Fire
Warner Bros. Inc. said Wednesday that Louis Vuitton Malletier SA should not be able to “veto” the appearance of its designer bags in movies, taking a shot at a trademark suit over a prop in the “The Hangover Part II.”
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February 22, 2012
Comcast Dials Up Another Patent Suit Against Sprint
A Comcast Corp. subsidiary on Tuesday accused Sprint Nextel Corp. of infringing four more of its communication patents, continuing Comcast's recent litigation offensive against its telecommunications rival.
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February 22, 2012
Sony Owns ‘King Of The Road,’ Other Songs: 6th Circ.
Sony/ATV Publishing LLC owns the renewal copyrights to the hit “King of the Road” and other songs by country singer Roger Miller, the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday, reversing a district court win for Miller's widow and striking down a damages award of almost $1 million.
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February 22, 2012
Megaupload Founder Wins Bail In New Zealand
Kim Dotcom, the infamous founder of file-sharing and alleged piracy site Megaupload.com, was granted bail Wednesday by a New Zealand district court, as he continues to await extradition proceedings that could land him in a U.S. courtroom.
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February 22, 2012
Ex-Mets Clubhouse Manager Cops To $2M Memorabilia Theft
A former New York Mets clubhouse manager has pled guilty to criminal possession of nearly $2.3 million worth of memorabilia, including autographed jerseys, bats and baseballs, belonging to the team and to tax evasion, prosecutors said Tuesday.
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February 22, 2012
Judge Sends Dodgers Ch. 11 Plan To The Plate
A Delaware federal judge on Wednesday approved a disclosure statement for the Los Angeles Dodgers LLC’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan despite a barrage of objections, including one by a fan who suffered severe injuries last year at a baseball game.
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February 22, 2012
T-Mobile Wants FCC To Block Verizon's $4B Spectrum Buys
T-Mobile USA Inc. told the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday that Verizon Wireless' efforts to snatch up wireless spectrum licenses from Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc. and others for about $3.9 billion would harm competition and consumers.
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February 22, 2012
Judge Won't Revive Suit Over Facebook's Data Sharing
A California federal judge refused Tuesday to revive a claim in a defunct class action accusing Facebook Inc. of improperly sharing consumers' personal information with advertisers, saying the claim's dismissal did not hinge on the nature of the plaintiffs' communications with the company.
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February 21, 2012
AEG Slips Michael Jackson Wrongful Death Suit
Concert promoter AEG Live LLC on Tuesday escaped a wrongful death suit brought by the father of the late pop star Michael Jackson, after a California state judge found Joseph Jackson's claims were mirrored in an ongoing suit filed by his wife.
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February 21, 2012
High Court Won't Review Phil Spector's Murder Conviction
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to review legendary 1960s songwriter and producer Phil Spector's petition for the court to overturn his conviction for an actress' 2003 murder on the basis that the trial judge’s inclusion into evidence of a videotaped hearing violated his Sixth Amendment rights.
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February 21, 2012
Evanston Insurance Tries To Shake Bratz Coverage Suit
Attorneys representing Evanston Insurance Co. told a California federal judge on Tuesday that the insurer doesn't have a duty to defend MGA Entertainment Inc. in its ongoing trade secrets feud with Mattel Inc. over the Bratz doll line.
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February 21, 2012
MGA's $1B Bratz Antitrust Suit Against Mattel Jettisoned
A California federal judge on Tuesday tossed MGA Entertainment Inc.'s $1 billion antitrust lawsuit claiming Mattel Inc. tried to sabotage its Bratz doll line, ruling that MGA's claims had already been litigated during the companies’ ongoing intellectual property war.
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February 21, 2012
Judge OKs $180M Inner City Sale Over US Objection
A New York bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved Inner City Media Corp.'s plan to sell itself for $180 million to creditors including billionaire Ron Burkle, overruling the U.S. government's objection that the plan constituted an attempt to dodge $31 million in taxes.
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February 21, 2012
Morgan Keegan To Pay Sports Agent In Bond Investment Case
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel on Friday awarded the co-founder of a prominent sports agency — whose client roster includes quarterback Tim Tebow — $400,000 over allegations that Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. deceptively spurred investments in bond funds laden with mortgage-backed securities.
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February 21, 2012
NLRB Union Election Invalid, Hard Rock Tells DC Circ.
The National Labor Relations Board wrongly allowed eight disputed ballots to decide the fate of a union representation election in favor of the union, the operator of Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel and Casino told the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
Google Wants Authors Guild Deleted From Books Action
Google Inc. on Friday asked a New York federal court to dismiss The Authors Guild Inc. from the class action challenging its project to archive the world's books, saying the association cannot litigate copyright claims on behalf of its members.
Expert Analysis
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Linsanity: The Trademark
The rush to trademark "Linsanity" — the current craze caused by New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin — is reminiscent of attempts to trademark the Charlie Sheen phrase ”Winning," and, similarly, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may refuse registration, says Geri Haight of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
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Fashion Designers: Legally Naked?
The recent Christian Louboutin SA v. Yves Saint Laurent America Holding Inc. case highlights fashion designers' limited intellectual property protections and the pressure on designers to frame their aesthetic or artistic choices as brand identifiers in order to secure IP protection, say Tyler Baker and Christine Steiner of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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Tips For Venturing Into Ambush Marketing
Companies pay millions of dollars to associate themselves with prominent sporting events and movie and television award ceremonies. While there are significant inherent legal risks in ambush marketing, there are many ways to utilize third-party references without running afoul of the legal protections afforded the owners, says Jonathan Pompan of Venable LLP.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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Why Competition Fails In The Online Advertising Market
People should care about Google Inc.'s dominance of the online advertising marketplace not because advertisers are facing monopoly pricing — although that is a policy concern — but because Google’s business model is based on systematically stripping away user privacy to maintain its dominance, says Nathan Newman of Tech-Progress.org.
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Case Study: Voom V. EchoStar
As the New York appellate court decision in Voom HD Holdings LLC v. EchoStar Satellite LLC demonstrates, the Zubulake standard on the preservation of electronic documents pending litigation may require in-house and outside counsel to put litigation holds in place even before litigation actually begins, says Ronald Minkoff of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC.
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Examining Comcast's Calif. SBE Loss
The California State Board of Equalization recently ruled against Comcast Corp., holding that Comcast was unitary with QVC Inc. and the fee Comcast received for a failed merger with MediaOne Group Inc. was business income. Although the case results in a taxpayer loss, discussions by the board demonstrate that a unitary analysis is subjective, say attorneys with Reed Smith LLP.
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Revised Removal Statutes — Possibilities, Pitfalls: Part 2
The Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 has brought about substantial clarification in the federal removal, jurisdiction and venue statutes. But the act still leaves substantial ambiguity in place when it comes to the scope of these statutes, say Colin Wrabley and Douglas Allen of Reed Smith LLP.
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Confirming Joint Plans For Multidebtors — Post Tribune
In the wake of the In re Tribune Company decision — which may be followed by other bankruptcy judges and in other jurisdictions — parties in interest in complex multidebtor Chapter 11 cases should not assume that "joint" administration of affiliated debtor cases means that a single joint plan for all debtors will succeed, say Jack Butler, John Lyons and George Panagakis of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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Blue Ivy — From The Cradle To The USPTO
It seems that the trademark application seeking registration of the mark "Blue Ivy Carter NYC" in connection with children's apparel is either a naked attempt at piggybacking on Blue Ivy's fame, or a more unscrupulous attempt to “trademark squat” in the hopes of assigning or selling the application to Beyonce or Jay-Z, say attorneys with Oved & Oved LLP.