Bit Parts

Request for Client Files Rejected. The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate Division, decided that the law firm of prominent entertainment attorney Kenneth Ziffren will not have to produce 52,683 client files at a projected cost of $6 million for Ziffren's divorce proceeding with his wife, Marcia. Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie & Stiffelman, B167832. Marcia had sought the documents to determine her community interest in the firm. The documents' limited probative value was “greatly outweighed” by the burden of producing them and the intrusion into of the privacy rights of the Ziffren firm's clients, the court noted in its unpublished opinion. The court concluded that the community interest could be estimated from the large amount of documentation already handed over by Ziffren or his firm.

No 'Brotherhood' Injunction. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire refused to issue a preliminary injunction to bar the premiere of producer David Kelley's new series “The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire.” MJM Productions v. Kelley Productions Inc., 03-390. In its unpublished opinion, the district court found insufficient evidence that the defendants intentionally copied the plaintiffs' “Brotherhood” film title or that the plaintiffs had established secondary meaning in the name. On likelihood of consumer confusion, the court noted, “A nationally broadcast television program and a film which has been shown only twice cannot be said to be similar goods, share channels of trade, or target the same classes of purchasers.”