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2d Circuit Blocks NY Litigation of 'Girl 6' Copyright Infringement Case
Fort Lauderdale copyright attorneys Matthew Nelles and Adriana Kostencki of Nelles Kostencki were in a Los Angeles airport in February 2019, when movie director, producer and actor Spike Lee called the day after winning an Oscar for his historical crime drama BlacKkKlansman. But the call wasn't about the win.
Nelles recalled how Lee — real name Shelton Jackson Lee — had just heard about a New York copyright infringement lawsuit filed against him by someone who had sued him years before in Florida. "Spike Lee's saying, 'How could this happen?' And I'm thinking, 'I don't know how this could possibly happen,'" Nelles recalled. "Because, immediately, what comes into my head are two principles of law called res judicata and collateral estoppel," two principles aimed at preventing the same parties from relitigating an issue after it's been resolved.
Nelles and Kostencki had successfully defended a 2015 lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida from plaintiff James Brandon, who accused Lee, Lee's production company 40 Acres and a Mule Musicworks Inc., 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and the musician Prince — officially Prince Rogers Nelson — and others of copyright infringement.
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