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<i>By Stan Soocher</i>Estate Planning/Undue Influence ClaimTV-Series Sequels/<i>Forum NonConveniens</i>Upcoming Events
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Recently filed cases in entertainment law, straight from the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
When a lower-level employee uses a former employer's trade secrets after taking a new job, the plaintiff often sues the new employer itself and demands exemplary damages under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act ('UTSA') — even if the new employer was unaware of, and disapproves of, the employee's conduct. Taking a page from the law of employment discrimination, we believe that companies that provide intellectual property training for their workforce can use the fact of such training during litigation to avoid exemplary damages for the solitary wrongdoing of non-executive-level employees and perhaps avoid vicarious liability altogether. Companies, especially technology startups, can reduce trade secret litigation and liability risks by implementing such programs — programs which today are very rare, even in Silicon Valley.
Default JudgmentPreponderance of EvidenceStatutory DamagesSufficiency of Pleading
Hedge funds have gone Hollywood. Chasing high returns, money managers are plunking down hundreds of millions of dollars to finance films such as 'Superman Returns' and 'Nanny McPhee.' At the same time, the influx of money from hedge funds and private-equity firms is reshaping film-financing deals, leading entertainment lawyers toward lucrative transactions and new clients who might want a little glamour-by-association.
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Copyright Infringement/Chain of Song OwnershipVideo-Game Laws/Constitutionality
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The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that Bridgeport Music didn't breach a mechanical-licensing agreement by filing a copyright-infringement suit against its licensee for granting digital-download licenses to third parties.
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Like other sectors of the entertainment industry, the film industry is looking to the digital age for new revenue streams. Even with digital-piracy concerns, film studios are positioning themselves to capitalize on Internet sales of their products. This summer, for example, motion pictures from several major studios and key independent providers became available on CinemaNow for downloading and copying by consumers for DVD-machine play. In the following interview ' conducted by Entertainment Law & Finance Editor-in-Chief, Stan Soocher ' George A. Cooke, a law partner in the New York office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, discusses distribution of motion pictures in the digital age.
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In 1976 and again in 1998, Congress extended subsisting copyrights, by 19 and 20 years respectively. <i>See</i> Pub. L. 94-553, 90 Stat. 2541 (1976) (extending renewal term for pre-1978 works to 47 years, for 75 years total protection); Pub. L. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827 (1998) (extending renewal term for pre-1978 works an additional 20 years, for 95 years total protection). Seeking to allow authors and their kin to share in the benefits of the newly extended terms, Congress afforded them a mechanism known as statutory termination. <i>See</i> 17 U.S.C. '304(c) and (d). The mechanism allows abrogation of contracts executed prior to Jan. 1, 1978, otherwise valid under state law, by which an author (or certain other specified persons) had transferred away copyright interests. To bolster and protect this termination right, Congress mandated that it may be effected 'notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary.' 17 U.S.C. '304(c)(5); <i>see also</i> 17 U.S.C. '304(d)(1).