Practice: Entertainment & Sports

The JAMS Entertainment and Sports Group consists of the best Entertainment and Sports ADR professionals in the country -- retired federal, state trial and appellate judges and former entertainment litigators.

JAMS neutrals offer a range of resolution styles and approaches.  They have specific expertise and have handled high-profile matters, including, but not limited to Film/Television Contracts and Clearance of Rights; Talent; Net Profits; New Media/Internet; Interactive Media and Gaming; Music; First Amendment/Right of Privacy and Publicity; Copyright, Trademark, Trade Dress and Anti-Piracy; Guilds, Sports (Professional and Amateur).

JAMS neutrals have handled high profile matters involving television and film studios, professional sports organizations and other entities in the music industry. They are chosen for their ability to resolve complex disputes with significant savings of time and expense for the parties. In addition, JAMS neutrals are heralded for their skill at evaluating litigation risk, doing so with the utmost sensitivity to the high level of confidentiality often required of these cases. With a complete understanding of the Industry customs and practice as well as legal, business, and interpersonal issues, JAMS is often the premier provider of Alternative Dispute Services in this area.

Entertainment and/or Sports cases generally involve disputes ranging from contract disputes to trademarks, copyright, right of publicity, right of privacy, defamation, clearance of rights, product placement, idea theft, accounting, advertising, etc. These cases also tend to overlap substantially with intellectual property law, but also often involve questions of employment law, labor law, bankruptcy law, security interests and agency law. Entertainment law in general can be sub-divided into the following areas:

• Film: covering option agreements, finance, chain of title issues, talent agreements (screenwriters, film directors, actors, composers, production designers), production and post production and trade union issues, distribution issues, motion picture industry negotiations distribution, and general intellectual property issues especially relating to copyright and, to a lesser extent, trademarks
• First Amendment: including Defamation (libel and slander), personality rights and privacy rights issues
• Guilds: Cases including but not limited to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Directors Guild of America (DGA), Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Producers Guild of America (PGA)
• Multimedia: including software licensing issues, video game development and production, Information technology law, and general intellectual property issues
• Music: including talent agreements (musicians, composers), producer agreements, and synchronization rights, music industry negotiation and general intellectual property issues, especially relating to copyright
• New Media: New media phenomenon, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and etc.
• Publishing & Print Media: including advertising, models, author agreements and general intellectual property issues, especially relating to copyright
• Sports Law: including sports contracts, broadcast rights, sports safety issues, and some issues relating to intellectual property and copyright law. Sports law is an umbrella term that can be used to describe the legal issues at work in the world of both amateur and professional sports. Sports Law encompasses many areas of law, such as labor, antitrust, contracts, drug testing, and torts. Issues like defamation and privacy rights are also part of sports law
• Theater: including rental agreements and co-production agreements, and other performance oriented legal issues
• TV & Radio: including broadcast licensing and regulatory issues, mechanical licenses, and general intellectual property issues, especially relating to copyright
• Visual Arts & Design: including fine arts, issues of consignment of artworks to art dealers; and industrial design, issues related to the protection of graphic design elements in products