Significant changes have occurred in entertainment and media during the last decade, and Lord, Bissell & Brook LLP attorneys are on the cutting edge of major legal issues. We have expanded our practice to include representation of talent in all of the major entertainment markets, litigated high-profile issues confronting producers in the reality programming genre and gained extensive knowledge in the area of online music distribution. We provide the entertainment and media industry the knowledge, practical experience and creative thinking to solve problems, do deals and protect rights.
Our attorneys have been speakers on entertainment panels for events including NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) conferences, the Berlin Film Festival, and the Winter Music Conference. In previous years, Lord, Bissell & Brook has been the title sponsor for the PRISM awards, a nationally-televised awards show recognizing the accurate depiction of drug, alcohol and tobacco use and addiction in film, television, interactive, music, video and comic book entertainment.
Our attorneys have also served as in-house counsel for entertainment companies before joining Lord, Bissell & Brook and have worked with the major entertainment guilds - writing, acting, and directing.
Lord, Bissell & Brook attorneys serve on boards of and actively participate in entertainment organizations including:
- American Bar Association, Sports and Entertainment Law Forum
- Beverly Hills Bar Association, Entertainment Law Section
- Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyer Association
- Georgia Bar Association, Sports and Entertainment Section
- Hip-Hop 4 Humanity
- Los Angeles County Bar, Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Section
- Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Entertainment Industry Commission for the City of Atlanta
- National Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences (the organization that hosts the Grammy Awards)
Transactions Our attorneys have successfully managed significant deals including:
- The acquisition of three television stations (in separate transactions) for more than $75 million;
- The closing of a $75 million venture capital financing for a television station group;
- The acquisition of a talent agency by a venture fund;
- The closing of a $27.5 million debt facility for a television station group;
- The acquisition and sale of large and small advertising agencies and public relations firms, including the largest boutique technology public relations firm; and
- The purchase of a youth-oriented magazine for a public company.
Talent Our attorneys provide legal services for the television, film, stage and music industries including the negotiation of recording, producer, music, personal management, tour, motion picture soundtrack, television, motion picture stage production, and merchandising and product endorsement agreements.
Our attorneys advise today’s top record label executives and counsel entertainment clients in their cross-marketing and brand-building opportunities.
Significant representations include:
- Defended major talent agency in litigation involving right of publicity by former client;
- Litigation in connection with a federally licensed wireless telecommunications concern against a local government that resulted in the largest money damages award ever granted, valued at $1.6 million;
- Negotiation of the first commercial product endorsement deal for a recording artist with a major fitness label;
- Negotiated actor agreements for lead actors on television series and reality television programs; and
- Negotiated publishing agreement for a prominent author.
Copyright/Trademark/Right of Publicity We help build and protect our clients’ intellectual property portfolios. Our attorneys include trial and appellate counsel who have extensive experience representing clients in copyright, trademark and trade dress infringement litigation, right of publicity disputes and idea submission/misappropriation, as well as trade secret, unfair competition and restrictive covenants claims. In addition, we provide domestic and international trademark and domain name registration, prosecution and dispute resolution services. We have:
- Negotiated and drafted both composition and master use music licenses, as well as celebrity name and likeness usage and license agreements; and
- Served as counsel for reality TV shows, advising on rights clearance, defamation issues and liability avoidance strategies.
Feature Film, Television & Cable Our attorneys have litigated several cases involving reality programming and negotiated television production agreements for major studios and networks.
Our attorneys have handled entertainment transactions such as sponsor financing, product integration and innovative talent deals. Our attorneys have been involved in such shows as “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “The Bachelorette,” “Punk’d,” “The Benefactor” and “Dancing With The Stars.” They have dealt with issues surrounding scripted television shows and film-related financing and fundraising.
Our attorneys have handled the purchase and sale of numerous television stations and the representation of the day-to-day affairs of television stations.
Our television practice also draws on the background of our attorneys in Canadian and international co-production. Our attorneys have extensive contacts in the international production and financing communities, with experience in Canadian contact and production services tax credits, sale leasebacks and other international incentive programs. They are experienced in legal work for productions outside of the U.S., including guild issues. Our attorneys also represent leading individual creators of programming for the animation industry.
Our attorneys have represented television and radio station group owners, television networks, production companies and distribution companies in all aspects of these businesses. We handle acquisitions, divestitures, financings, talent contract negotiations, union issues, cable system negotiations, FCC issues, tower issues, strategic alliances, production rights, and syndication contracts. Our attorneys have:
- Aided in the completion of service contracts for production studios;
- Optioned rights to literary works, including books, scripts and screenplays for feature films;
- Negotiated feature film producer, executive producer and director agreements;
- Assisted independent feature film producers with the structuring of production entity and financing related documents and disclosures;
- Assisted in the completion of strategic alliances among television companies, Internet properties and print companies; and
- Negotiated and prepared programming and services agreement between a place-based television network and a national cable news company for specially branded news segments.
Internet & New Media From the Internet to cell phones and PDAs, content is being digitized, manipulated and re-used in ways never imagined by its creators. Today, we can see Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner, the gait of John Wayne replicated through “motion capture” and a motion picture like Jurassic Park “re-purposed” into a theme park ride.
We assist clients with domain name selection and protection, on-line trademark misuse, electronic and other direct marketing privacy policies and issues. We represent interactive title designers, producers, publishers, and distributors, as well as producers and exhibitors of location-based entertainment. Our attorneys are featured speakers at various interactive/multi-media symposia and trade shows. Our attorneys have:
- Assisted a startup Internet television company seeking to deliver content throughout the world, and in the process, assisting with content deals, financing and intellectual property issues;
- Assisted with selling a place-based television network and accompanying Web properties;
- Advised an international consumer products company in intellectual property and entertainment content issues involved in launching retail Web site sales combined with news and audio/video entertainment;
- Represented and entity established by a major university as a joint partnership between the entertainment industry, the U.S. Army, and academia as the center for virtual reality and simulation research;
- Negotiated purchase and sale transactions for more than 40 television stations and radio stations in multiple states;
- Counseled numerous Web site operators on a variety of on-line issues such as copyright infringement based on linking and framing, trademark infringement via meta-tags, imbedded text and pop-up ads, comparative advertising under foreign jurisdictions’ divergent laws, personal jurisdiction based on Internet activities, and content rights clearance;
- Reclaimed the domain names for several clients, including an entertainment company and a television and film star; and
- Represented a client with advanced IPTV capabilities in their launch stage and in connection with intellectual property licenses.