Litigation

Features

The proposed merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Inc. won Justice Department approval in January 2010, following a year of negotiations. Steven Sletten of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher counseled Ticketmaster. In an interview, Sletten stated that he prepared his client to face a tough audience, both at the Justice Department and in the court of public opinion.

Features

MUSIC COPYRIGHTS/INFRINGING 'WORKS'<br>TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT/RECORD LABEL NAMES<br>TV COMPENSATION CLAIMS/FEDERAL PREEMPTION<br>VIDEOGAME DEVELOPMENT/INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

Features

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that a forum selection clause in a television broadcast agreement applied to a company within which the original signatory broadcaster later was merged.

Features

Broadly defined, the right of publicity is a person's right to control the commercial use of his or her identity. It has been over half a century since the term "right of publicity" was first coined by Judge Jerome Frank in 1953. Since that time, courts have been struggling to define the scope of the right of publicity protection, and to resolve the inherent conflicts between the right of publicity and the freedom of expression embodied in the First Amendment.

Features

In <i>ASM Capital, LP v. Ames Department Stores, Inc.</i> the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (the "Second Circuit") held that ' 502(d) of the Bankruptcy Code, which disallows claims until the claimant has returned all voidable preferential payments and other voidable transfers from the debtor's estate, does not apply to disallow administrative claims under 503(b).

Features

A Boston software developer is suing the now-defunct social media site ConnectU, its founders, its law firm, Washington-based Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett &amp; Dunner, and Scott Mosko, a Palo Alto, CA, partner at the firm, for allegedly cutting him out of Facebook's $65 million settlement with ConnectU's founders.

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A federal appeals court has reinstated an antitrust suit alleging price fixing by Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other producers, licensors and distributors of music on the Internet.

Features

As the nation's first case involving criminal prosecutions of teenagers for "sexting" made its way to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, all three judges seemed skeptical of the prosecutor's claim that child pornography laws are violated when a teen transmits a nude image of herself.