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Founder of The Dinosaur Project Sues Jurassic Park Creators
On Tuesday, Frederick Zaccheo, founder of the non-profit charity The Dinosaur Project, filed suit against the creators of Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom in the Southern District of New York. Zaccheo alleges that Universal City Studios and Amblin Entertainment committed breach of contract and trademark infringement relating to their use of the phrase SAVE THE DINOS in the film’s marketing materials. The phrase is a registered trademark belonging to Mr. Zaccheo, who sells SAVE THE DINOS apparel to raise money for various endangered wildlife charities through The Dinosaur Project. Zaccheo was approached by Universal’s legal counsel in the summer of 2017 and granted the […]
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A House of Horrors: AHS House at Center of Lawsuit
The Rosenheim mansion in Country Club Park, the location of the first season of American Horror Story, is now at the center of a lawsuit. The plaintiffs, Ernest Von Schwartz and Pier A. Oaken, purchased the house from Von Steinbauer in 2015 for $3.2 million. They are suing Steinbauer’s estate as well as the Coldwell Banker realtors and brokers that represented both parties claiming “they failed to disclose the site had become a [tourist attraction] for hundreds of AHS fans, some of whom have tried to break in, and that the seller hadn’t completed required repairs to the property.” The complaint was […]
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Fantasy Sports Score in Indiana Supreme Court Battle over NCAA Access
In a victory for daily fantasy sports operators DraftKings and FanDuel, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled last week that the names, likenesses, and statistical information of college athletes are newsworthy and may be used without players’ permission. A group of NCAA athletes sued DraftKings and FanDuel on the basis that players should be paid for the use of their information. The court ruled for the defendants because of the newsworthiness exception to Indiana’s right-of-publicity law. According to the justices, the use of player information by fantasy sports operators “bears resemblance to the same information in newspapers and websites across the nation.” […]
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Writer Sues PBS after Network Terminates Employment for Meghan Markle Comment
On Thursday, October 25, a former PBS writer filed a lawsuit accusing the network of unlawfully firing him because of sex and sex stereotyping after he made an “innocuous remark” about Meghan Markle. The plaintiff, Hugh Heckman, alleges that he was fired as a result of sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On November 25, 2017, Heckman was at work, looking at a picture of the Duchess with another employee while working on a story regarding the Royal Family of Britain. He said “not bad” to this co-worker. At that point, a female […]
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Nothing “Happy” About This: Pharrell Calls Out Trump for Playing Song at Rally
Pharrell Williams has sent President Donald Trump a cease-and-desist letter for playing his song, ‘Happy’, without authorization at a rally. The move comes in the wake of the tragic shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The letter penned by Williams’ lawyer, Howard King, states that “on the day of the mass murder of 11 human beings at the hands of a deranged ‘nationalist,’ you played his song ‘Happy’ to a crowd at a political event in Indiana. There was nothing ‘happy’ about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this […]
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Amazon Studios Settles with Artist’s Estate Before Highly Anticipated Suspiria Release
Amazon Studios has settled a copyright dispute with Ana Mendieta’s estate over images in Suspiria, the highly anticipated Luca Guadagnino film set to be theatrically released in New York and Los Angeles this weekend. Mendieta’s estate filed suit against the studio in federal court in Seattle last month, claiming several images in the film were too similar to her work. Representatives of Mendieta’s estate initially sent Amazon Studios a cease-and-desist letter after noticing the striking similarities in the film’s first trailer. The studio then cut the images in question from the final version of the film, but an agent affiliated with the […]
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“All The Stars” Leads to a Lawsuit
Lina Iris Viktor is suing Universal, Kendrick Lamar, SZA and others, over the “All The Stars” music video where she claims her paintings are shown. “Viktor alleges that a 19-second part of the Video infringes on her artwork by displaying, without a license, distinctive paintings of Viktor’s, which are based on ancient Egyptian and African symbolism and feature gold leaf and black paint.” Her complaint alleges three counts: copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement and contributory copyright infringement. She is seeking a permanent injunction along with actual damages and indirect profits stemming from (1) damages to her reputation and (2) profits directly and indirectly attributable […]
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Online E-sports Gambling Makes U.S. Debut
On Tuesday, online e-sports gambling platform Unikrn was approved for a gambling license in the Isle of Man. The license allows Unikrn to expand its nascent e-sports gambling service to countries with legalized sports gambling, including the US and most of Europe. The company, headquartered in Las Vegas, had previously only been permitted to operate in the UK and Australia, and only to offer real-money betting. In addition to accessing new markets, the regulatory approval also allows the company to offer betting with blockchain currencies such as bitcoin. The e-sports (or competitive online videogame) industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years thanks […]
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Sorry, Nicki
On Monday, October 22nd, 2018, Tracy Chapman slapped Nicki Minaj with a copyright lawsuit. In her complaint, Chapman alleges that her song “Baby Can I Hold You” was sampled in Minaj’s song entitled “Sorry” without Chapman’s permission. Beginning in June 2018, Minaj and her representatives made multiple requests to license “Baby Can I Hold You,” which were all denied by Chapman. Despite the denials, Minaj leaked “Sorry” to Funkmaster Flex, a radio DJ, who then teased the song on social media, and also played the song on the radio on August 11, 2018. After Funkmaster Flex played “Sorry,” listeners reproduced the […]
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Slam Dunk for Federal Prosecutors in NCAA Suit
On Wednesday, a jury of eight returned with unanimous guilty verdicts against Jim Gatto, a former Adidas marketing executive, Merl Code, a former Adidas consultant, and Christian Dawkins, an aspiring sports agent, after three days and 18 hours’ worth of deliberations. The defendants were convicted on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, for defrauding National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools by paying athletes to attend Adidas-sponsored schools, specifically Louisville, Kansas, and North Carolina State. Most famously, Brian ‘Tugs’ Bowen’s father, Brian Bowen Sr., accepted nearly $20,000 from Munish Sood, a former colleague of Dawkins, who had […]
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Born to be Sued: Kylie Jenner Accused of Stealing Makeup Line
Kylie Jenner and her makeup company Kylie Cosmetics have both faced a number of lawsuits in the past few years, and the latest one comes from indie makeup company Sheree Cosmetics. Kylie Cosmetics recently launched a new line of products called “Born to Sparkle.” Sheree Cosmetics brings forth the claim that they already had a line of products with the same name, and that the products have similar packaging. Kylie Cosmetics’ line launched on August 6th, whereas Sheree Cosmetics filed an application to register the trademark on August 30th. This may prove a problem for Sheree Cosmetics, as trademarks are generally […]
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Splinter-ed Reputation: Miller sues Gizmodo Claiming False Abortion Pill Allegations
Jason Miller, a former member of President Trump’s communication team and ex-CNN commentator, filed a lawsuit on October 15, 2018 against Gizmodo Media Group, the parent company of Splinter.com, and the site’s managing editor Katherine Krueger. The $100 million-dollar lawsuit was filed in the southern district of Florida with a request for a jury trial. Miller’s complaint alleges that a story posted on Splinter.com caused him to lose his job at CNN and ruined his reputation. The article accuses Miller of slipping an abortion pill to a woman he impregnated through an affair. The article claims the pill caused the termination of the […]