Entertainment and Sports Law

Word that the historic French franchise Girondins de Bordeaux filed for bankruptcy recently rocked European football. Various factors led to the team's downfall. But one force in particular poses an even broader threat to the sustainability of the elite level of French soccer: media rights.

The rise in demand for in-person events post-pandemic has meant a corresponding increase in personal injury actions against venues. Consequently, venue-owner and operator clients would be wise to regularly evaluate their insurance policies (particularly general liability insurance policies) to ensure adequate coverage.

Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.

A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.

Most of the federal circuit courts that have addressed what qualifies either as a "compilation" or as a single creative work apply an "independent economic value" analysis that looks at the market worth of the single creation as of the time when an infringement occurs. But in a recent ruling of first impression, the Fifth Circuit rejected the "independent economic value" test in determining which individual sound recordings are eligible for their own statutory awards and which are part of compilation.

The next company general counsel to slide a morality clause across the desk for a celebrity or web influencer to sign shouldn't be surprised if that talent also whips out a morals clause, one to cancel the contract if the company's brand acts immorally.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit called Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s requirement of new procedures for mass arbitration claims unenforceable and rejected the company's bid to keep a proposed class action lawsuit alleging inflated ticket prices out of court.

Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.