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Using Character Integrity Guidelines to Protect Franchise Characters
In recent years, Hollywood has become more and more a business of creating and exploiting franchises rather than simply making and distributing movies. This is partly because the costs of promoting a movie are so great that the studio wants to be able to reap the benefits of this initial expenditure by producing and releasing sequels. The studio also wants to be able to “extend the brand” by being able to exploit the franchise in multiple ways (through merchandise, publications, interactive games, theme park rides, stage plays, etc.).
Although occasionally a franchise is still created from scratch (e.g., Toy Story, Avatar), often the studio licenses rights to an existing character or other property that already has at least some built-in audience. (It's “pre-sold” in current parlance.) The licensed property can range from a novel (the Bourne movies), to a comic book or graphic novel (Spiderman), a toy (Transformers), a theme park ride (Pirates of the Caribbean), an interactive game (Resident Evil), an older movie or television property (The A Team); there is practically no limit to the human imagination's ability to find ways to build upon and expand existing sources.
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Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
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Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent Trolls
With trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.