Media and Entertainment

Overview

Arent Fox represents a varied group of clients in the media and entertainment industries, offering specialized legal services to these distinctive fields.

Media / Entertainment

Arent Fox has served the film and entertainment industry since the early days of silent films. We have significant experience in all phases of the film and television production process, from inception of a movie idea through the marketing and merchandising of toys to theme park rides. Arent Fox also understands the evolving technology of the motion picture industry as it gradually transitions from a physically based celluloid system to the digital era in which films are captured, created, processed and distributed in electronic form.

We represent the creators of the raw material that makes motion picture storytelling possible. Examples of our services include:

• Representing authors in negotiating publishing agreements for fiction and non-fiction.
• Protecting authors against third-party claims by making certain that their text does not encroach on the privacy or publicity rights of their subject matter or defame any of the described individuals.
• Negotiating a publishing contract for a well-known American historian who had served as an historical advisor on motion pictures dealing with the role of African Americans in the Civil War.
• Representing the heirs of world-famous authors in recapturing rights previously conveyed at less-than-market value prices.
• Representing a famous political cartoonist and negotiating a deed of gift to the Library of Congress of the original artwork and other personal memorabilia.

When it comes time to make a film deal, Arent Fox stands beside the authors, the film producer or studio in negotiating underlying rights acquisition agreement, which will facilitate the production of multimillion-dollar feature films. We also assist film companies in exploiting their assets, including the sale and merger of cinematic assets as part of film library transactions.

Arent Fox has assisted almost every major film studio while retaining our ties with individual artists and business people. We are currently representing a small production company run by a well-known actor, as well as an individual producer of several highly regarded features and television productions. We have assisted a client in setting up a successful online music site and counseled clients in entering the Chinese market to obtain a broadcast license. Other notable clients include Discovery Television, Discovery Health, Animal Planet and The Learning Channel.

We have uniquely trained copyright specialists who are familiar with analyzing complex chains of title in motion pictures and underlying properties as affected by US and foreign laws, including: unfair competition, privacy rights, publicity rights, First Amendment rights, defamation and rights in the physical film material.

Arent Fox represents performers and interpreters of creative material. For example, we have negotiated personal services agreements with well-known sports personalities and commentators for hosting radio and television programs broadcast nationally and the advertiser that funded the programming. We have worked closely with public television to continue its prestigious programming. We also assist in resuscitating former public domain materials by restoring rights in well-known stories, motion pictures—even dolls. Where authors have improperly conveyed their rights, we assist in recapturing those rights under both the renewal copyright provisions and the more recently enacted termination of transfer rights of the Copyright Act. Many of these terminations have resulted in highly favorable renegotiations for both the authors and the heirs of the authors.