Jessica Simpson can Teach You an IP Clearance Lesson

• Posted by Geoffrey G. Gussis on August 8th, 2005


• Filed in Intellectual Property, Risk Management & Compliance

PHOSITA, an intellectual property blawg published by a smart group of attorneys at Dunlap, Codding & Rogers, reports that the producers of the Dukes of Hazzard movie had an expensive lesson on the importance of clearing intellectual property rights:

"As you probably know, the movie was based on a popular television show from the 1970s. What you may not know is that the television show was based on a little known 1974 movie, Moonrunners.
Warner Brothers attained the rights to make the movie into a television
series in 1978. According to a lawsuit earlier this year, the movie
rights remained with the producer of the original movie. In fact, a
preliminary injunction ordered Warner Brothers to cease marketing and
postpone the release until the issue was resolved. Since Warner had
already spent $53 million making the movie and had started the $30
million advertising push, settlement was definitely an option.

In
the end, the copyright holder obtained $17.5 million for the rights to
a movie that nobody has seen. Of course, if I come upon Moonrunners in the future, you can bet I’ll watch now."

Link: PHOSITA : IP Oversight Costs "Dukes of Hazzard" $17.5 Million.