'To Kill a Mockingbird''s State Adaptation Rights Results In Ambiguity Battle

If more than one derivative-use agreement is entered into for the exploitation of rights in the underlying work, a key goal of contract drafters and negotiators is to specify and distinguish the rights being granted to each of the different parties in their agreements. A major consideration, of course, is to avoid disputes from an overlap of rights granted. A current dispute over contract language in grants to different parties for theatrical adaptations of the classic 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an apt example of what can happen if contract language isn't specific enough, in this case resulting in an arbitrator inserting the term "non-first-class rights" into an award decision and leading Lee's estate to claim the arbitrator's use of the term was ambiguous.