Entertainment and Sports Law

Leslie José Zigel, Chair of the Entertainment, Media & Technology Group at Greenspoon Marder offers his thoughts on entertainment industry issues arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While every industry is dealing with massive upheaval as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, few are as visible as sports and entertainment. While many who practice in this area anticipate a slowdown in overall legal work, certain pockets of work are being pushed to the forefront, creating demand for the services these attorneys provide.

At this moment in COVID-19 time, if your case involved stopping the sale of counterfeit unicorn products on the Internet, sorry, that wouldn't be an emergency. That was the message from U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger, in a decision denying a request for a temporary restraining order filed on behalf of Art Ask Agency, the exclusive licensee for the fantasy art of British artist Anne Stokes, who is popular among the Dungeons and Dragons crowd.

In April, a U.S. District Judge tossed a six-count, $100 million-complaint against Universal Music Group that was filed after a 2008 warehouse fire that reportedly destroyed master recordings. The class action was originally brought by or on behalf of recording artists. After the ruling, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partners Scott Edelman and Deborah Stein and associate Nathaniel Bach, who served as defense counsel in the litigation, discussed the case.

An overview of copyright troll litigation and explores potential litigation strategies for responding to troll cases.

Copyright Termination Claims Found Timely, But Loan-Out Companies Can't Terminate Copyright Assignments Judge Unhappy With Damon Dash's Trial Behavior New York Federal Court Sees No Copyright Infringement or False Endorsement in Use of Mural in Film

For the past five years, the copyright bar and the music industry have carefully followed the many twists and turns of the potentially monumental infringement case that asserted that the opening of the iconic Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" was copied from the introduction of a little-known 1967 instrumental "Taurus," written by the late Randy California. In March 2020, a unanimous en banc panel of the entire Ninth Circuit affirmed portions of a prior three-judge appellate ruling that "Stairway" did not infringe the Spirit song — and in the process resolved some thorny issues involving substantial similarity and copyright scope that will be important for future litigants

Defendants Led Zeppelin and its music labels were the winners in the copyright decision by the Ninth Circuit over the song "Stairway to Heaven." But the estate of songwriter Randy Wolfe (p/k/a California) wasn't the only one who got the short end. Among the collateral damage from the ruling was a 2002 precedent written by former Chief Judge Alex Kozinski that endorsed the so-called "inverse-ratio" rule.