“Battleship” Movie Featuring Rihanna Makes $170 Million

Posted by on May 15, 2012 in Art, Business Transactions, Commercial Transactions, Entertainment, Film, Music, News | 0 comments You may have read this title and said quietly to yourself…what movie named “Battleship” featuring Rihanna? You may also be thinking… isn’t Rihanna a singer? Well, there is a perfectly good explanation why you don’t know what movie we are referring to. The movie “Battleship” has been released in countries around the world,with the exception of the U.S. It is not...
read more

The Usually Silent Teller is Suing to Protect his Craft

Posted by on Apr 23, 2012 in Art, Copyright, Employment, Film, Intellectual Property, News, Television | 0 comments Teller, half of Penn & Teller is suing a magician for copyright infringement. According to numerous reports, Teller is suing a Dutch Magician named Gerard Dogge. The suit alleges that Dogge is infringing on Teller’s copyrighted trick known as “Shadows”. The trick uses a rose projected onto a screen with a spotlight. The magician cuts the shadow which in turn cuts that actual...
read more

DJ Pauly D is Being Sued by His Former Representation

Posted by on Apr 15, 2012 in Business Litigation, Business Transactions, Entertainment, News, Television | 0 comments Pauly Delvecchio, better known as DJ Pauly D, is being sued by International Creative Management (ICM) for breach of contract among other causes of action. Pauly D, best known for Jersey Shore and his new spin-off The Pauly D Project, was represented by ICM following the first season of Jersey Shore. The complaint filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court alleges that Pauly D was originally...
read more

Actress Sues Vodka Company for Misappropriation of Likeness in Rape Ad

Posted by on Apr 14, 2012 in Art, Entertainment, Film, News, Television | 1 comment On March 29, 2012, actress Alicyn Packard filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Moet Hennessy USA over a controversial advertisement for Belvedere Vodka used earlier last month on Belvedere’s Facebook and Twitter pages. The ad in the middle of all this controversy is one where a man is smiling and holding a woman who looks upset with the following words depicted in the ad...
read more

Hulu Users Filed Class Action Lawsuit Against Hulu Claiming The Online Video Hub Used “Zombie Cookies” to Track Users’ Online Activities

Posted by on Apr 13, 2012 in Art, Business Litigation, Business Transactions, Entertainment, Film, News, Television | 0 comments The bad just got worse for the popular website Hulu. Hulu has been defending against a class action lawsuit filed by Hulu users who claim the popular website has been tracking its users’ online activity with cookies and other identifiers that are placed on users’ computers. These cookies are sometimes called “zombie cookies” because they reappear even when Hulu users clear the...
read more

How Much Are Paparazzi Photos of Celebrities Really Worth? $600,000? $1,500,000?

Posted by on Apr 12, 2012 in Art, Business Litigation, Copyright, Entertainment, Film, Intellectual Property, Music, News, Sports, Television | 0 comments Paparazzi photo or not, a photographer has an automatic right of ownership in the photos he takes the minute he takes them. This right is called a copyright. A company called Mavrix essentially takes photos of celebrities and, thus, owns a copyright in many of these photos. Mavrix Photo is an agency that calls itself the “premier source for celebrity images and photo-journalism.” This...
read more

Producer Seeks $1Million in Damages For Intentional Name Misspelling in Movie Credits

Posted by on Apr 11, 2012 in Art, Business Litigation, Business Transactions, Entertainment, Film, News | 0 comments How much is a name worth? Well, if you are film producer Bob Van Ronkel, it is worth $1 Million (or at least according to the complaint he recently filed in Los Angeles Superior Court). Mr. Von Ronkel’s lawsuit lists causes of action for breach of written contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, fraud in the inducement, negligent misrepresentation, injunctive...
read more

Actress’s Lawsuit Against IMDb.com and Amazon.com is One Step Closer to Trial

Posted by on Apr 10, 2012 in Business Transactions, Entertainment, Film, News, Television | 0 comments On March 30, 2012, the Washington Federal Court Ninth Circuit made several findings in the case of Huang Hoang, who has been making headlines in the entertainment industry for her lawsuit last October claiming website IMDb.com and its parent company Amazon.com are liable to her for damages because they had revealed her true age of 40 years old. Ms. Hoang, who is better known in the entertainment...
read more

Sandra Bullock Sues ToyWatch USA for Using Her to Sell Watches: Rights to Publicity at Issue

Posted by on Mar 27, 2012 in Business Litigation, Business Transactions, Commercial Litigation, Commercial Transactions, Entertainment, Film, News, Television | 0 comments It’s no secret to most consumers these days that celebrities and the corporations they team up with make tons and tons of cash selling products. These celebrity endorsements can help skyrocket sales of nearly any product or service. The bottom line is that celebrity endorsements work. The law makes clear that celebrities have a right of publicity, which basically means the celebrity has a...
read more

Google Takes a Stand in MPAA Lawsuit Against Hotfile

Posted by on Mar 27, 2012 in Art, Business Litigation, Business Transactions, Commercial Litigation, Commercial Transactions, Copyright, Entertainment, Film, Intellectual Property, Music, News, Television | 0 comments The Motion Picture Association of America has filed a summary judgment motion in its lawsuit against Hotfile,which could allow the court to decide fairly soon whether or not Hotfile will be held liable for encouraging and facilitating copyright infringement. Many consumers may be unfamiliar with the Hotfile website and more familiar with past websites like Napster and Limewire. Similar to Napster...
read more

Bravo and Ryan Seacrest Settle with “Shahs of Sunset” Participant

Posted by on Mar 26, 2012 in Art, Entertainment, Film, News, Television | 0 comments Many people may may have been surprised when one of the participants of the upcoming reality show the “Shahs of Sunset” filed a lawsuit last November claiming she was being forced to play the bad girl role in the show. Most people have the gut reaction that in reality television, anything goes- including bad behavior. For those of you not familiar with the anticipated new reality series, it...
read more

Lawsuits Threaten Jay-Z’s Fortune More than a Decade After the Release of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin” Musical Hit

Posted by on Mar 26, 2012 in Art, Copyright, Entertainment, Film, Intellectual Property, Music, News, Television | 0 comments It may take you a while to recall the song “Big Pimpin” by Jay-Z, but it is likely that even if you do not listen to rap music, you have heard it in a movie, a television sitcom, on the radio, or as background music in a store. This song was a major hit for Jay-Z and likely one of the songs that put him on the map to stardom more than ten years ago. Many thirty-somethings can probably recall...
read more