Bit Parts

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, decided that two musicians who joined the rock band Survivor after its founding could proceed with royalty counterclaims against band principal Frank Sullivan and Survivor Music. Sullivan v. Jamison, 06 C 5240. (Sullivan had sued Jamison for trademark infringement.) Neither counterclaimant, vocalist Jimmy Jamison nor bassist Stephan Ellis, were in Survivor when the band signed a 1978 recording agreement with Scotti Brothers Records. But District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman noted that the 1978 contract and an amended 1983 recording agreement with Scotti Brothers “incorporated new members of the band through the execution of inducement letters and bound them to the contracts to the same degree as the original members.” Judge Coleman also noted, for example: “On [Oct.] 23, 1986, Gerald Margolis, an attorney for Survivor, wrote a letter to Jamison's attorney concerning the relationship between the corporation Survivor Music Enterprises, Inc. and Jamison. The letter states in relevant part, 'So far as I am able to ascertain from John Baruck [manager] and from the accountant for Survivor Music Enterprises, Inc., Jimi Jamison has indeed and in fact been extended and enjoyed all the benefits of the other individual members of the recording and performing group Survivor, commencing with the admission of him as a member of the group and through the present date ' the group is comprised of five individuals (including your client), and business structures aside, the net revenues of the group from personal appearances and phonorecords are split among the members in equal shares.'”