By Sharmil McKee on August 23, 2010
Ultramercial sued HULU Television in California for patent infringement. Ultramercial claimed that it patented the business process of allowing a user to view television content for free after forcing the user to watch a short advertisement. In essence, Ultramercial claims it patented the process of displaying advertisement in exchange for access to copyrighted media. A federal district court recently declared that Ultramercial’s patent is invalid.
Posted in Understanding Contracts |
By Sharmil McKee on August 16, 2010
On my client’s behalf, I have obtained a $203,000 joint-judgment against three defendants. Two of the defendants are business entities and the third is an individual. My client is willing to sell his judgment at a discount to any interested party. The business entities have two real properties located in Philadelphia. The first property’s estimated value [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts |
By Sharmil McKee on June 13, 2010
Two brothers are claiming that Warner Bros stole their screen play to develop and produce “The Last Samurai”. The basis of the Benay brothers’ claim is that Warner Bros breached an implied contract to pay if they used the script. Of course the brothers filed their lawsuit in California, so California law will determine the [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity |
By Sharmil McKee on March 19, 2010
Last month, Dr. Dre (a/k/a Andre Young) sued WIDEawake Death Row Records for unpaid royalties and copyright infringement. Dr. Dre claims that WIDEawake is a holding company for Death Row Records, after Death Row Records filed bankruptcy. Dre also claims that WIDEawake began re-producing and releasing copies of his album, Chronic. According to the complaint, [...]
Posted in Intellectual Property, Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, copyright |
By Sharmil McKee on February 19, 2010
Will and Jada Smith have responded aggressively to legal threats that they fraudulently induced someone to invest in their film project. In 2007, Jada wrote a film, the “Human Contract”; Will produced it. They convinced David Grasso to invest in the film. He did with $5 million dollars. The film went straight to DVD. In [...]
Posted in Litigation, Understanding Contracts | Tagged celebrity, Litigation |
By Sharmil McKee on February 4, 2010
Jill Scott is facing a possible multi-million dollar judgment. Her record label, Hidden Beach, is suing her for breach of contract. They claim that she promised to produce 6 albums, but she has only produced 3 so far. They are seeking to recover the money they would have earned had she produced the final 3 [...]
Posted in Litigation, Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, Litigation |
By Sharmil McKee on January 19, 2010
A week ago, Conan O’Brian lost his job, as the host of the Tonight Show. Actually, it appears the Conan quit when the network (NBC) decided to move the show from 11:30 pm to 12:05 am. http://tinyurl.com/yz5xt7u The network’s decision was made after examining Jay Leno’s rating of his 10 pm show. The poor ratings [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity |
By Sharmil McKee on December 27, 2009
Nicholas Cage is being sued for fraud. Red Curb Investments alleges that Nicholas Cage failed to repay a $5 million loan. A loan is a contract where Party A agrees to lend money to Party B. In exchange, Party B agrees to repay the money on a certain day. When Party B fails to repay [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, Litigation |
By Sharmil McKee on August 29, 2009
Is a contract written in blood enforceable in court? No. It is hard to imagine that in 2009, people would ever resort to using blood to write contracts. However, in 2009, the courts address two different contracts written in blood. The first was a $170,000 loan between two friends. The loan agreement was written [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, Litigation |
By Sharmil McKee on June 23, 2009
Judgment creditors lost a battle today. The Pennsylvania Superior Court held that a judgment creditor may not receive a debtors interest’s in a Limited Liability Company, unless the LLC’s operating agreement allows it. A judgment creditor is a person who won a court order declaring that the defendant owes that person a certain sum of [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged collecting judgment |
