ENTERTAINMENT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Making it in the entertainment industry requires more than talent it requires a strong back-up team of professionals to ensure that artists reap the rewards of their creativity and sweat equity. Leading recording artists and producers, independent record companies and music publishers, and others in the entertainment world, as well as major sports figures, trust Caplan & Ross to fight for their intellectual property and contractual rights, and to represent them in other business litigation.

We advocate on behalf of clients in disputes involving:

• Copyright Infringement;
• Trademark Infringement;
• Royalty and Licensing Agreements;
• Royalty Accountings;
• Breach of Contract Claims;
• Defamation Actions.

Our emphasis on the entertainment sector means that we understand how new technologies impact our clients' work. Our experience enables us to act quickly, to remove bootleg merchandise from the streets, stop copycat performers, and to bring to a halt those seeking to exploit our clients' good names and creative efforts.

Because we focus on litigation, we often work with other industry professionals, including: transactional lawyers from other firms who draft agreements and represent entertainers in contract negotiations, accountants, business management firms, and personal managers.

Our past has trained us to represent your future.

• We are Co-Counsel in Allman v. SONY BMG Music Entertainment, a potential precedent setting case challenging the methodology that record companies use to pay recording artist and record producers for digital downloads and ringtones.
• Our attorneys were appointed Co-Counsel to Plaintiffs in Puckett v. SONY Music, a precedent setting music case in which class certification was obtained for recording artist seeking compensation for underreporting of foreign record royalties, a case which was resolved favorably to the class.
• Our attorneys have represented leading recording artists, performing around the country, in legal actions to seize non-licensed bootleg merchandise.
• We successfully assisted a song writer/music publisher in her quest to reacquire her multimillion dollar publishing catalogue in a highly contested legal proceeding.
• Our firm's lawyers have represented a number of top-selling recording artists in litigations against major recording labels, seeking to recover royalties due under their recording agreements.
• We have represented one of France's best-known musical groups in actions against copycat bands usurping their name, and the venues permitting them to perform.
• Our attorneys recently helped a garment industry licensor recover over $1,000,000 from one of its licensees.
• We have represented several musical groups in connection with claims made against them by departing band members.
• Over the years we have successfully represented both bands and managers in various management disputes.

At Caplan & Ross, we develop pragmatic game plans to resolve commercial disputes as expeditiously as possible, so our clients can go on with their business without interruption.

From sole proprietorships to family owned businesses to public companies, our firm has represented a diverse range of clients in commercial disputes in numerous industries including apparel, jewelry, advertising, fine art, book and magazine publishing and entertainment. We have also represented accounting firms and attorneys.

Our broad litigation experience includes partnership and corporate dissolutions, director and officer liability cases, shareholder disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, employment law matters, and state and local regulatory proceedings.

With strong litigation experience across a number of industry sectors and practice areas, our attorneys provide aggressive representation at the trial and appellate levels in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution proceedings.