Liabilities in The Entertainment Business

There are many liabilities that can occur in the entertainment business.  I will discuss three:  infringement, not obtaining permission, and not honoring the terms of a contract.

In the Arnold M. Preston, petitioner v. Alex E. Ferrer case.  Preston petitioned lawsuit to obtain fees owed to him by Ferrer.  Ferrer stated that Preston should have performed the duties of a Personal Manager (PM), instead of a Talent Agent.  Ferrer, television character “Judge Alex”, brought the case to the California Labor Commissioner for judgment of the contract being unenforceable and void due to Preston being an unlicensed talent agent, therefore, should not be owed fees.  The case was remanded to Arbitration.

No. 06-1463

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

552 U.S. 346; 128 S. Ct. 978; 169 L. Ed. 2d 917; 2008 U.S. LEXIS 2011; 76 U.S.L.W. 4097; 28 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 681; 27 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 257; 21 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 77

Already, LLC, dba YUMS v. Nike, Inc

Nike sued YUMS in federal district court alleging trademark infringement based on a “colorable imitation" of its product.  YUMS filed a covenant and made changes that no longer infringed the Nike trademark.  Decision:  Covenant not to enforce trademark against competitor’s existing products and any future “colorable imitation” held to moot competitor’s action to have trademark declared invalid.

No. 11-982

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

133 S. Ct. 721; 184 L. Ed. 2d 553; 2013 U.S. LEXIS 602; 105 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1169; 23 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 549

The French appears to be very serious in upholding the antipiracy law.  Disney, Warner Bros., 20^th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, the Civil Society of Phonographic Producers, and the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Editors (SACEM) were awarded $1.6 million in an illegal downloading case in France.  The 21- year old programmer and creator of the illegal sharing site Forum DDL, do not have the funds to pay the millions of dollars in damages.  The programmer was convicted under 2004’s Code of Intellectual Property and will spend three years in jail.  The French government goes after the consumers in the form of warnings to those who participate on the illegal downloading site, enforcing the Hadopi law (three-strikes law).

Chipotle Sues Frank Ocean For Backing Out of Ad Campaign

Chipotle alleges that they paid Frank Ocean $212,500 to produce a song in an ad campaign and promised to pay another $212,500 after the song was delivered.  Chipotle says Mr. Ocean agreed and backed out of the deal.

It is apparent that contracts need to be explicit and detailed, not leaving anything to chance.  A business plan should be structured in the same fashion.  To "cover yourself" is the name of the game in the entertainment business.