Our clients benefit from Dickinson Wright’s knowledge of legal principles in the areas of contract,
copyright and
trademark, publicity and privacy, defamation, negligence and a variety of other general statutory and common law property rights. When handling litigation and disputes for our music, sports and entertainment industry clients, we combine our experience in these areas to meet the unique needs of each client.
For example, we have handled the prosecution and defense of record piracy cases based on
copyright infringement related to album artwork; state and provincial protection of sound and video recordings; and the unauthorized use of an athlete or artists’ name and likeness. Our experience includes handling copyright infringement claims involving musical compositions in numerous genres; unfair competition claims; defamation cases against on-air personalities and broadcasters; and the sale of bootleg merchandise and publications. We have litigated the rights to pre-1972 sound recordings (which are not covered by
copyright law) and record album cover artwork that was afforded copyright protection long before 1972.