Bit Parts

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled, in a motion for reconsideration, that an agreement for the defendant to use the right-of-publicity indicia of late baseball hero Mickey Mantle in a documentary and for related merchandise didn't authorize the way the defendant's Web site was designed. The Estate of Mantle v. Rothgeb, 04 CV 4310(KMW)(HBP). The district court noted that the 1989 agreement at issue in the case 'unambiguously requires that the Mantle Indicia be used only in reference to the Picture, and specifically prohibits using the Mantle Indicia for endorsing anything but the Picture itself. The court concludes that the following alleged Web site activities are not authorized by the Amended Agreement (1) Defendants' manufacture and sale of merchandise that uses the Mantle Indicia without referencing the Picture's title or logo; (2) Defendants' sale through the Web site of merchandise, produced by other manufacturers, which uses the Mantle Indicia without referencing the Picture's title or logo (the 'third-party merchandise'), and links through the Web site to products and services that have no relation to the Picture; (3) the Web site's failure to directly reference the Picture on approximately fifty percent of its pages; and (4) the Web site's self-description as 'The Official Mickey Mantle Website' and 'The Official Licensed Web Site and Catalogue.” But the district court nevertheless concluded that questions of material fact remained on the Mantle estate's breach-of-contract, contract termination and trademark-related claims over the Web site.

Film Exhibition/Use Tax