Litigation

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.

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.

In ASM Capital, LP v. Ames Department Stores, Inc. 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).

A Boston software developer is suing the now-defunct social media site ConnectU, its founders, its law firm, Washington-based Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & 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.

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.

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.

Film Studio Wins Tax Credit Case
One-Second Sample Isn't Automatic Copyright Infringement
"Sham Affidavit" Rule Applied in Memorabilia Suit

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California denied a motion to exclude the expert testimony of a witness who has worked in advertising and celebrity endorsements for more than three decades.