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Media & Entertainment
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June 14, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Vodafone, Siemens, KKR
Vodafone could pad its $9.6 billion buyout bid for Kabel Deutschland after the Germany company spurned the initial offer, while Siemens is looking for a way out of its 50-50 joint venture with Nokia that carries an estimated worth of $9.4 billion.
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June 14, 2013
Pa. Officials Want NCAA Penn State Suit In Mediation
Pennsylvania officials on Thursday asked a state court to place into mediation their lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association over sanctions levied against Pennsylvania State University stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal following the university’s request that both parties reach a settlement.
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June 14, 2013
GAO Reopens CIA Cloud Computing Bidding After IBM Protest
The Central Intelligence Agency shouldn't have given a $600 million cloud computing contract to Amazon.com Inc. because it didn't treat all bidders equally, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a decision released Friday granting an IBM Corp. bid protest.
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June 14, 2013
Gordon Ramsay's LA Restaurant Hit With Wage Suit
Gordon Ramsay Los Angeles LP and the celebrity chef's restaurant The Fat Cow were hit with a proposed class action Thursday in California state court filed by four former employees, who accused the employer of taking their tips and a series of other wage-and-hour violations.
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June 14, 2013
EQT Opts For $1B Springer IPO Over Proposed Buyout
German publisher Springer Science+Business Media Deutschland GmbH will proceed with an initial public offering expected to rake in about $1 billion, it said Friday, dousing speculation that private equity owner EQT Partners AB would instead go with a full buyout offer.
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June 13, 2013
Sprint, SoftBank Defend $22B Deal Against Dish Backlash
Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday stood by the sweetened $21.6 billion buyout offer SoftBank Corp. unveiled this week, after rival bidder Dish Network Corp. urged the Federal Communications Commission to demand a new analysis of the modified deal, which now includes a poison pill.
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June 13, 2013
Unpaid Conde Nast Interns Hit Co. With Wage Class Action
The parent company of Conde Nast Publications was hit with a proposed class action by former interns for W magazine and The New Yorker who claimed the company violated federal and state wage-and-hour laws by failing to compensate them for their work.
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June 13, 2013
Facebook Skirts Willful Infringement In 'Like' Button Row
A Virginia federal judge on Wednesday granted Facebook Inc.’s motion to dismiss a claim of willful infringement in a lawsuit accusing it of infringing two patents owned by Rembrandt Social Media LP, finding the complaint didn’t show Facebook had presuit knowledge of the patents.
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June 13, 2013
Fox Ruling Warns Cos. Of Pitfalls In Hiring Interns
As summer internship programs kick into high gear, a recent ruling that a pair of Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. interns ought to have been classified as employees should remind employers to remain wary of the potential wage-and-hour dangers that go along with bringing on unpaid workers, attorneys say.
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June 13, 2013
WMG Can't Claim 'Happy Birthday' Copyright, Suit Says
A unit of Warner Music Group Corp. was hit with a proposed class action Thursday in New York federal court accusing it of claiming a bogus copyright for the world-famous song "Happy Birthday to You."
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June 13, 2013
NEC Accused of Flouting Aurora Set-Top Box Trademarks
Aurora Multimedia Corp. has accused Japanese tech giant NEC Inc. of wrongfully using its logos and software to sell its Internet-related television products and services in a lawsuit filed in New Jersey federal court Wednesday.
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June 13, 2013
Paramount Scores Sweet Win In 'La Dolce Vita' Rights Row
A California federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Paramount Pictures Corp. owned the U.S. rights to Federico Fellini’s iconic film “La Dolce Vita” while finding that a production company infringed Paramount's copyrights by licensing the film in the U.S.
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June 13, 2013
Redbox Insurer Disputes Coverage For Customer Info Fight
National Union Fire Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., sued Redbox Inc. and Coinstar Inc. in Washington federal court Wednesday, claiming it isn't obligated to defend or indemnify Redbox in a putative class action alleging it illegally retained and disseminated customers' rental histories for marketing purposes.
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June 13, 2013
Bankrupt Atari Wins Approval To Dump Assets Bit By Bit
A New York bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved Atari’s plan to sell off its assets piece by piece by the end of July, a plan Atari says represents the best opportunity to maximize asset value for the benefit of all stakeholders.
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June 13, 2013
Penn State Wants Pa., NCAA To Settle Row Over $60M Fines
Pennsylvania State University on Tuesday asked the state and the National Collegiate Athletic Association to settle a dispute over $60 million in sanctions levied in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal, emphasizing that it wanted to avoid being caught between the two sides.
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June 13, 2013
Greenberg Glusker Lands Veteran Entertainment Litigator
Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP announced Monday that a veteran entertainment and IP litigator has joined the firm as a partner, adding to its presence in the interactive gaming and digital and mobile app areas.
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June 13, 2013
Gannett Doubles TV Holdings With $2.2B Deal For Belo
Gannett Co. Inc. said Thursday it plans to buy Texas television company Belo Corp. in a deal valued at $2.2 billion, nearly doubling its television holdings and making it the fourth-largest major network affiliate owner in the country.
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June 13, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Springer, TPG, Sinopec
BC Partners is closing in on a $4 billion acquisition of German academic publisher Springer in a deal that will likely wipe out plans for an initial public offering, while Sinopec wants a piece of a Russian-owned $20 billion liquefied natural gas project on the Arctic Yamal peninsula.
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June 13, 2013
Apple VP Denies Colluding With Publishers At E-Book Trial
Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue on Thursday denied accusations that he conspired with U.S. publishers to raise e-book retail prices prior to the 2010 launch of iBookstore, testifying during an antitrust trial in New York that he believed Apple's entry into the market expanded consumers' selection of digital books.
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June 12, 2013
Live Nation Wins Arbitration In CTS Contract Row
Live Nation Entertainment Inc. said Wednesday an arbitrator ruled in its favor and tossed out claims that the company violated the implied covenant of good faith by breaking off a licensing agreement with ticket seller and live-performance manager CTS Eventim AG.
Expert Analysis
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FTC And SEC Are Schizoid On Social Media
The Federal Trade Commission's recent guidance on digital advertising disclaimers and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new policy on corporate financial disclosures were presented by the agencies as ways to enable use of social media by corporations — but instead just make things much harder, if not totally impracticable, says Glenn Manishin of Troutman Sanders LLP.
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Keeping Tabs On Employee Social Media Discourse
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent investigation on Netflix reminds employers that they may unwittingly violate the SEC’s full-disclosure requirements unless they take steps to guard against employees’ inadvertent disclosures of material, nonpublic information through social media channels, says Reema Kapur of Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
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Cariou V. Prince Confirms Importance Of Transformativeness
Whether the increasing importance of transformativeness is conceptually useful or has merely become a conclusory shortcut will continue to be the subject of debate, but the Second Circuit's recent decision in Cariou v. Prince illustrates why it does not make prediction of legal outcomes any easier than the statutorily based multifactor balancing test of fair use, says Kim Landsman of Golenbock Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe LLP.
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The ABCs Of Data Center Leasing
Data centers house the computer servers and equipment that allow you to use your computer at work and stream a movie through Netflix, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With demand continuing to grow for the foreseeable future, this is one of the hottest, but least understood, real property types, says Michael Rechtin of Quarles & Brady LLP.
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How McBurney V. Young Will Impact State FOIAs
In McBurney v. Young, the U.S. Supreme Court has permitted the still-uncommon practice of state legislatures to restrict use of their freedom of information laws to citizens of the states. But states should not race to adopt citizens-only provisions in their freedom of information laws, say John Borger and Leita Walker of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.
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Forensic Analytics Can Find Needles In Multiple Haystacks
Forensic analytics is indispensable to any situation involving voluminous transactions or other large amounts of data. Yet, too few attorneys or organizations use, or maximize, forensic analytics to its fullest benefit. The recently publicized European soccer match-fixing scandal provides a handy illustration, say Jonny Frank and Alex Lefferts of StoneTurn Group LLP.
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FTC’s New Children’s Privacy Guidance: 4 Traps To Avoid
The long-awaited guidance on the Federal Trade Commission's revised children’s privacy rule identifies some traps that easily could be missed by a company struggling to implement the changes before the July 1, 2013, deadline, say Matthew DelNero and Lindsey Tonsager of Covington & Burling LLP.
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Common Branding Mistakes — And How To Avoid Them
While initially it may seem like an unnecessary expense in both time and money to properly vet potential brands, in light of the potential costs of rebranding or defending a trademark infringement suit, these expenses are well worth it in the long run, say Courtney Dunn and Jon Gibbs of Lowndes Drosdick Doster Kantor & Reed PA.
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Expect More Copyright Issues For Photo-Sharing Sites
Should photographers worry about the terms to which they have agreed when they upload content to sites like Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest? A survey of the terms of use from 10 social networking services suggests they might, says Mai-Trang Dang of Mei & Mark LLP.
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A Look At The FCC's Action On RF Exposure Limits
A recent Federal Communications Commission action consists of technical changes in how radio frequency exposure is evaluated and how compliance with the existing RF exposure limit is demonstrated. Many companies are likely to take an interest in the proceeding given its potential to affect an array of sectors, say attorneys with Mayer Brown LLP.