Industry Liabilities

   The entertainment business a lot of times faces some liabilities such as copyrights infringement. This is the case that Tom Cruise is facing right now. A $1billion dollar lawsuit has been file against Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible: Ghost-Protocol. Timothy Patrick McLanahan filed a law suit in which states that the script for the Ghost-Protocol was stolen back in 1998 from the screen play “Head On”. McLnahan claims that the script was put in front of Cruise’s agent Rick Nicitawho is married to Paula Wagner, Cruise’s production partner.

      Having copyrighted material can help a lot of authors and artists. This case has not been settle yet but that is why the importance of having copyrights can save an original work. It will be an interesting case to follow to see if McLanahan will win the lawsuit and how he will be able to prove that his script was used.           

     In 2011 tattoo artist S. Victor Whitmill sued Warner Bros. for a copyright infringement in the film The Hangover Part II. Whitmill sued Warner Bros. because in the movie Stu (Ed Helms) wakes up from a night out with a replica of Mike Tyson’s face tattoo. The artist claim that the tattoo was specially made for the former boxer and that they did not have the rights to show a replica of his original work. According to Rudie Obias, from mentalfloss.com the lawsuit almost affected the release of the film. Warner Bros. settled Whitmill’s claim for an undisclosed amount.

     This is a great example on how artists can get rewarded for their work, when companies use art, music, paintings, etc. without the artist’s permission. Copyrights are great for any artist in the entertainment business. Maybe this case was purely an honest mistake of using a replica of art without knowing the tattoo was a copyrighted material, but that is why is very important for companies in the film and video industry to know what material they can use without committing any copyrights infringements.

     Usually in the film industry it is very rare to find a trademark infringement when it comes to titles. That was not the case for Disney’s movie Frozen. Disney sued Phase 4 for trademark infringement over the title of the movie Frozen, in which Phase 4 made a similar title for it’s movie Frozen Land. The logos are very similar and the movies were released within three weeks apart. In this case, since a film title cannot be trademarked, the Lanham Act helps to prevent entities from selling goods designed to confuse the source of origin of some trademark. Being said that, Disney asked for an injuction and destruction of all DVD’s for Frozen Land, because that could create actual damages and lost profits.

     This is a very interesting lawsuit because of a trademark infringement upon a title. I believe will win this case of trademark infringement because after looking at the logos side by side, anyone can tell that they are very similar. When an entity infringes on a title, logo or anything similar it could cause a really big damage on the trademark that owns the rights.

References:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2551594/Tom-Cruise-sued-1-BILLION-man-claims-come-Mission-Impossible-Ghost-Protocol-script.html

http://mentalfloss.com/article/53331/8-famous-movies-and-lawsuits-plagued-them

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/disney-files-trademark-lawsuit-frozen-667617