'New' Summit Structure Retains Distribution Fees
Summit Entertainment's $1 billion movie financing deal ' which created a new production and distribution studio ' all started with a group of bankers and lawyers sitting around and talking about how to get more money from movie-financing deals. In recent years, investors have invested in films that are distributed by studios, which take a distribution fee of about 10% to 15%. With the Summit deal, the investors for the first time cut the middleman in this process.
Cameo Clips
Digital Downloading/No Public Performance; Management Agreements/Tortious Interference.
Decision of Note: Mexican TV Co. Can Proceed in Florida Fed Court
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided that a Florida federal district court, rather than a Mexican court, should hear a suit by one Spanish-language broadcaster against another for tortious interference with a soap-opera actor's contract.
Trademark Fair-Use Analysis Hits Snag
Few issues in trademark and advertising law can compete in importance with this: whether a competitor can use another's trademark in advertising its products or services. With the battle for consumer attention growing increasingly aggressive as the number of products and services proliferate, and the means for advertising and promoting them expanding at an even more alarming rate, the importance of brands and their recognition by consumers ' and the surrounding legal issues ' have never been more significant.
Internet Expands Trademark Infringement
It should strike no one as a surprise that the fluidity of using trademarks on the Internet expands the incidence of trademark-infringement claims and lawsuits. And along those lines, novel Internet trademark claims spring from the innovative but unlawful use of trademarks in e-commerce. Logically, then, it follows that Internet domain names, hyperlinks, meta tags and framing marks enlarge the number of trademark-infringement opportunities.
Valuing the Closely Held Business
Aside from the many important and critical issues involving children and family, the valuation of a closely held business or professional practice may be one of the most significant issues a practitioner will face when resolving the financial aspects of matrimonial matters. In that regard, one of the most important aspects that the valuator is confronted with is the establishment of a reasonable level of replacement compensation to assign to the owner in the valuation of an ownership interest.