Hasbro, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast LLC (hereafter referred to collectively as “Hasbro”) filed a lawsuit against Sweetpea Entertainment, Inc. and Sweetpea B.V.I. LTD. (hereafter referred to collectively as “Sweetpea”) mainly for copyright and trademark infringement. Hasbro claims that it owns the ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ copyright and trademark, and therefore Sweetpea has no right to start or resume production of a new Dungeons and Dragons movie. The lawsuit ensued when Hasbro learned about Sweetpea’s motion picture deal with Warner Bros. (“WB”).
Facts
Dungeons and Dragons (“D&D”, the “Property ”) is a fantasy role-playing game that encourages players to imagine adventures. Each player can choose from one of the seven character classes, each has its own traits and specialties, to become its alter ego throughout the adventure. A Dungeon Master, who sets out rules, guides the players in their adventure and governs the game. The game comprises of an “entire universe of settings, rules, creatures and artifacts disseminated in books, magazines and other publications [.] (Sweetpea vs. Hasbro, 2013)” In 1974, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson published the first D&D under Tactical Studies Rules, Inc., later became TSR, Inc. (“TSR”).
Courtney Solomon, one of the majority shareholders of Sweetpea, has wanted to turn D&D into a feature film since he experienced the role-playing game. When he discovered that no one has acquired for the motion picture rights to D&D, he contacted TSR and submitted a proposal. After two years of proposal after proposal, and extensive negotiations, TSR and Sweetpea entered into an Option Agreement dated May 3, 1991 (the “Option Agreement”). Sweetpea exercised the option and arrived at an Exclusive Irrevocable License ...
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...o choose the litigation path? I don’t know. It could be that it missed reading the contract, but for a huge company with an army of lawyers, Hasbro is not one to miss something like this. It saw something we haven’t seen. Or maybe it’s just a tactical way to delay productions to Sweetpea’s fourth D&D movie. It could be that Hasbro’s exhausting all of Sweetpea’s resources to this litigation to ultimately nix the fourth D&D movie and effectively revert the sequel rights back to Hasbro. There are many possibilities and evidence that hasn’t been discovered, and questions only a jury can answer.
For now, Sweetpea wins this case, as its arguments are more solid and compelling. Supported only by the Agreement and contract fulfillment, Sweetpea retains all rights to the license of the D&D property as outlined in the original Agreement, and the First and Second Amendments.
In my opinion, if the jury in this case subtracted the contractual claims against the profits, they would have arrived at different damage/entitlement amounts. My guess is Main Line would have been entitled to much less than what was awarded in this case.
The first claim that I’ll discuss is that D&D causes players to commit suicide. According to http://www.webzonecom.com/ccn/cults/satn10.txt, Dr. Radedki, “chairman of the National Coalition on Television Violence”, said “[t]here is no doubt in my mind that the game Dungeons and Dragons is causing young men to kill themselves and others.” A character in the Chick Tract “Dark Dungeons” commits suicide after her character dies in the game. The conception seems to be that players get so obsessed by the game, so enthralled, that when something goes wrong (like their character dying) they have difficulty dealing with the consequences. They have so much difficulty, it is claimed, that they sometimes kill themselves because of it.
Movies today are extremely expensive to make and are typically financed through either film studio contracts or from investors willing to take a risk. In order to be successful, movies need to be marketed and distributed either under contract by the film studios or by companies that specialize in such services. The aspects of financing, marketing and distribution of films have changed between the studio and independent systems over the years as the evolution of the film industry took place.
Opinion by Carnes, Circuit Judge. We conclude that the district court’s judgment was an appealable “final decision”. We also hold that the arbitration agreement in this case defeats the remedial purposes of the TILA and is unenforceable.
How are the principals of Arundel Partners planning to make money by buying rights to sequels? They would be interested in purchasing the sequel rights for one or more studios¡¦ entire production over an extended period of not less than a year. If a particular film was a hit, and Arundel thought a sequel would be profitable, it would exercise its rights by producing the sequel. Alternatively, they can sell the rights to the highest bidder. Inevitably, the performance of the original films would not justify sequels, and for them the sequel rights would simply not be exercised. For most movies it becomes quite clear after their first few weeks in theaters whether a sequel would be economical or not, based upon each film's box office performance.
• The franchise was new and not yet proven in the industry or the potential market
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that Daniel submitted in order to get a clear opinion so that their firm may get an exclusive
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