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Media & Entertainment
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June 18, 2013
BC Partners To Pay $4.2B For German Publishing Co.
Swedish buyout fund EQT Partners AB and a Singapore sovereign wealth fund are on the verge of an agreement to sell German publisher Springer Science & Business Media GmbH to British private equity house BC Partners Ltd. for €3.1 billion ($4.2 billion).
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June 18, 2013
Google Seeks Separate Release Of National Security Requests
Google Inc. on Tuesday asked the secret court overseeing government surveillance for permission to disclose the number of national security-related data requests it has received separately from other requests, bashing a deal other technology giants made to release all the data at once.
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June 18, 2013
IRS Should Tax Virtual Money Spent On Real Goods, GAO Says
Role-playing gamers who exchange virtual currency for real money or products should have to pay taxes for those transactions, but the Internal Revenue Service shouldn't implement a stringent compliance system just yet, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued Monday.
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June 18, 2013
Jury Mostly Backs Custom 'Warhammer' Parts In IP Suit
An Illinois federal jury Friday delivered a verdict mostly in favor of a small hobby business accused of infringing copyrights and trademarks covering tabletop battle game Warhammer 40,000 by selling customizable ad-on components for figurines and vehicles used in the game.
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June 18, 2013
Barnes & Noble Exec Backs Apple's E-Book Defense
A Barnes & Noble Inc. executive testified Tuesday in New York that the retailer considered implementing a business model that would have let publishers raise digital book prices before Apple Inc. did so, supporting Apple's defense in the final week of an antitrust trial over alleged e-book price-fixing.
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June 18, 2013
Obama FCC Pick Scrutinized Over AT&T, T-Mobile Comments
The former telecommunications lobbyist tapped to head the Federal Communications Commission told a U.S. Senate panel Tuesday that he would emphasize a precise and responsible review of mergers if Congress approved him, responding to controversy over his past suggestions that the doomed AT&T Inc.-T-Mobile USA Inc. merger should not have failed.
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June 18, 2013
Ky., US Reach $6M Deal To End Poker Site Claims
The state of Kentucky has agreed to drop its fraud claims against gaming sites PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, after the U.S. government agreed to transfer $6 million in settlement funds to the state, according to documents filed in New York federal court Monday.
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June 18, 2013
Steiner Must Turn Over Docs In Navy Yard Development Row
A New York state judge has ordered Steiner Digital Studios LLC and its partners to hand over documents related to their Brooklyn Navy Yard studio development venture but tossed claims against former Steiner director Lou Madigan in a $1 million dispute over unpaid legal fees.
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June 18, 2013
9th Circ. Awards US $20M In ‘Girls Gone Wild’ Tax Row
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday ruled that Rothwell Ltd. must surrender $20 million from a securities account to the Internal Revenue Service because it is the account's caretaker for “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis, who owes the U.S. government millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
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June 18, 2013
Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Patent Suit Over Nintendo's Wii Fit
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of IA Labs CA LLC’s infringement suit alleging Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii Fit video game and its accompanying balance board ripped off one of its patents.
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June 18, 2013
Design For $1B Atlanta Falcons Stadium Wins Approval
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority on Tuesday approved an open octagonal design for the Atlanta Falcons' new $1 billion stadium project and a contracting group led by Atlanta-based Holder Construction Co., moving the project into the schematic design phase.
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June 18, 2013
San Jose Says MLB Conspired Against Oakland A's Relocation
San Jose, Calif., officials sued Major League Baseball in California federal court Tuesday, claiming MLB harmed it to the tune of millions of dollars by stalling on an owners' vote on moving the Oakland Athletics to their city and challenging baseball's exemption to federal antitrust laws.
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June 18, 2013
Akin Gump Atty's Emails Irrelevant In MLB Row, Yankees Say
The New York Yankees on Monday told a federal judge considering an antitrust case against Major League Baseball over sports broadcasts that the Yankees' president, also an Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorney, should not have to turn over evidence.
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June 18, 2013
Tribune Could Owe $500M In Taxes On Cubs, Newsday Deals
Six months after escaping bankruptcy, media giant Tribune Co. revealed Monday that it could owe upward of $500 million in taxes stemming from its long-closed sales of the Chicago Cubs and the Newsday newspaper.
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June 18, 2013
'Venus And Serena' Film Draws IP Suit Over US Open Footage
The U.S. Tennis Association sued the filmmakers of a documentary about Venus and Serena Williams in New York federal court Friday, claiming the new film used copyrighted footage from the U.S. Open without licensing permission.
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June 18, 2013
Angelina Jolie's Double Hits News Corp. With Hacking Suit
A British woman who works as a stunt double for actress Angelina Jolie is suing Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. in California federal court in the first individual U.S. suit over the phone-hacking scandal that brought down Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid.
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June 18, 2013
'Good Wife' Star's Defense In Contract Fight Ruled OK
A California judge Tuesday allowed “The Good Wife” star Julianna Margulies to argue that an oral contract she had with D/F Management LLC is unenforceable because it wasn't written down, ruling her cross-complaint didn't waive that defense in the company's suit seeking 10 percent of her future earnings.
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June 18, 2013
Reader's Digest Affiliate Seeks Extension To File Ch. 11 Plan
Direct Entertainment Media Group Inc., a subsidiary of Reader’s Digest parent RDA Holdings Co., on Monday asked a New York bankruptcy judge for an extension of its deadline to file a Chapter 11 plan without the threat of a rival plan being submitted.
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June 18, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Johnson Controls, Verizon, Apollo
Johnson Controls is hoping for billion-dollar private equity offers for its automotive electronics unit after expanding its scope beyond strategic suitors, while wireless behemoth Verizon is mulling an expansion northward through the acquisition of Canada's Wind Mobile.
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June 18, 2013
Liberty Stages $10B Kabel Deutschland Bid War With Vodafone
Kabel Deutschland Holding AG confirmed late Monday that it received a preliminary buyout bid from international cable operator Liberty Global PLC, a move that could trigger a bid war between Liberty and British mobile giant Vodafone Group PLC over the $10 billion company.
Expert Analysis
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How EU Competition Law Applies To Data Collection Issues
So far, the European Commission has not reviewed a case where the accumulation or the manipulation of data was used to allegedly hamper competition. But the "essential facilities" case law developed by the commission for the last 20 years with respect to nonmaterial facilities should enable it to take a balanced approach in evaluating these cases, say Philippe Rincazaux and David Dubois of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
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Is TAR Right For Your Discovery Project?
There are several critical decision factors to weigh to assess whether Technology Assisted Review is right for a discovery project — for example, the nature of the case, internal capabilities, production considerations and overall comfort with this technology, say Michele Lange and Joseph White of Kroll Ontrack Inc.
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Debate Over New GTLD Applications Won't End Soon
Throughout the generic top-level domain application process, applications for generic and legally defined terms have been the source of significant debate, and new developments show that the debate may continue — possibly even after the process ends, says Heather Nolan of InfoLawGroup LLP.
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Class Arbitration Is Back In Arbitrators’ Hands
Arbitrators can still interpret contracts pretty much any way they want, according to the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter. The holding should come as no great surprise as it reflects decades of federal arbitration law, yet the unanimous ruling is a surprise, given what preceded it, says Christopher King of Homer Bonner Jacobs.
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Cable Networks, Distributors Face Tough Carriage Disputes
The recent decisions in Comcast Cable Communications LLC v. Federal Communications Commission and Sky Angel U.S. LLC v. National Cable Satellite Corporation underscore the rigorous review carriage dispute claims receive and provide insight into how such claims may be treated by courts and the FCC in the future, says Burt Braverman of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
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COPPA Rule Reminders For July 1 Compliance Deadline
Companies operating online should be determined to be in full compliance with the amended Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act rule by July 1, and should be aware that the revisions regarding parent consent, the entities subject to the rule, and the definition of "personal information" have far-reaching impact, say Alan Raul and Edward McNicholas of Sidley Austin LLP.
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Mediators, Expand Your Tool Kit In Complex Litigation
The resolution of class actions or multidistrict litigation cases can present a number of challenges that call for the utmost in the mediator's skill and understanding. Though there is no typical complex litigation case, a mediator needs to recognize the special levels of complexity in these cases, such as litigating against "repeat players" and handling "follow-on" cases, says James Rosenbaum of JAMS.
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We Need Mediation In E-Discovery
While parties may be hesitant to allow a nonjudicial proceeding to dictate their discovery needs, the level of expediency and the cost-effective nature of e-discovery mediation far outweigh any benefit to litigating these procedural components, say Daniel Garrie and Salvatore Scibetta of Law & Forensics LLC.
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Majestic May Prompt 3rd Circ. 'Property Of Estate' Review
The Third Circuit has overturned a bankruptcy court order that allowed the debtor, Majestic Star Casino LLC, to avoid taxes imposed upon it by operation of law when the casino operator’s nondebtor parent revoked its own “S” corporation status. This decision articulates important principles that could lead to a reconsideration of the scope of the concept of “property of the estate” in other contexts as well, say Steven Wilamowsky and Jeffery Black of Bingham McCutchen LLP.
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FRCP Amendments Could Change Discovery As We Know It
On June 3, the federal judiciary’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure approved for publication proposals to limit the scope of discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The proposed amendments appear well targeted to aggressively rein in a discovery process that many believe has gotten out of control in too many cases, say attorneys with Reed Smith LLP.