The entertainment attorneys at Weintraub Tobin represent individuals and companies in all aspects of the entertainment and media industries. Areas of emphasis include:
On September 8, Weintraub Shareholder Matt Sugarman will present as part of the American Bar Association webinar Comic Book Law 101. This panel will explore the comic book industry, its place in greater pop culture, and the key legal issues attorneys practicing in this area should know. Topics covered will include…
Summary of ProgramUnfortunately, both single-plaintiff and class-action wage and hour lawsuits continue to plague California employers. Often employers are sued because of technical violations that occur simply because the employer is unaware of its legal obligations. Come join the Labor and Employment Group at Weintraub Tobin as they discuss the…
Join us July 23!Weintraub Tobin and LAVA Digital Media Group will host a conversation with Ethan Applen, the executive director of Media Camp, a Turner/Warner Brothers Initiative, on Tuesday, July 23th. The conversation will focus on the opportunities and challenges with owning a startup company and will include a demo…
Join Us April 23! Weintraub Tobin and the LAVA Digital Media Group will host a panel discussion: “How Has Digital Media Changed the Way We Interact with Food” on Tuesday, April 23. Whether it’s finding a place to eat, sharing recommendations on your favorite dishes or ordering food online, investors…
Weintraub Tobin and Moss Adams are co-sponsoring the LAVA Digital Media Group’s panel discussion: “What’s Ahead for Digital Media in 2013” on Tuesday, February 26. Making predictions in digital media can be challenging. At this time last year who even knew what Pinterest was, let alone that it would explode…
In its official announcement earlier this week, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation confirmed that Weintraub client Walt Dohrn (Trolls, Trolls World Tour) has returned as director in the third installment of the animated musical franchise Trolls. Weintraub client Zosia Mamet is also named among the A-list cast. The threequel, named…
The hit bilingual podcast Princess of South Beach, produced by Weintraub client Sonoro Media, is set to be adapted to a series for Netflix. Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin) will executive produce the project along with Sonoro, Jasmine Romero, and iHeart’s My Cultura Network. The podcast is the top performing…
Weintraub client Picture Perfect Federation is teaming up with Picturestart to produce an English-language remake of the hit Thai film Bad Genius. The film will star Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Callina Liang (Tell Me Everything), and Jabari Banks (Bel-Air). Writer JC Lee (Luce) will make…
The home renovation show Rock the Block, produced by Weintraub client Big Table Media, recorded its highest-rated season premier among women between the ages of 25 and 54 on March 6th. The show is now the top cable program among this age group, bringing in more than 5.7 million total…
Bestselling novel The Honeys, by Weintraub client Ryan La Sala, is set to be adapted for film by Anonymous Content. The social horror story was published in August 2022, and was named a “Best Book of 2022” by several media organizations, including NPR, Barnes & Noble, and the New York…
Weintraub client Jess Varley (Phobias) will make her solo writing and directorial debut with the new film The Astronaut, a sci-fi thriller set to star Emma Roberts (Madame Web) and Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix franchise). The film is due to start production later this year, with Brad Fuller (A Quiet…
All Too Well: The Short Film, directed by Taylor Swift and produced by Weintraub client Saul Germain, was awarded Best Music Video at the 2023 Grammys on February 5, 2023. The 14-minute video stars Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) and Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf), and was shot by Rina Lang. The…
New murder mystery series Poker Face is now available to stream on Peacock. The first four episodes of the 10-episode season release premiered on the streaming service on January 26, 2023. Poker Face is the first TV series from filmmaker Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Star Wars), who is the creator,…
Weintraub client Sonoro has partnered with actors Manolo Cardona and Martha Higareda to help them create their own imprints of original audio content. Cardona is developing a new slate of shows, the first of which, Cuba 58, will premiere in the first quarter of this year. Higareda is focusing on…
In an interview with Amanda Salas on FOX11 in Los Angeles, Weintraub attorney Jessica Corpuz spoke about the involuntary manslaughter chargers being brought against actor Alec Baldwin in connection with the 2021 on-set death of a cinematographer. You can watch the full interview here:
Veteran filmmaker and Weintraub client Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride, Alfie) directed and co-wrote the new Netflix film “The Noel Diary,” which premiered on the streaming service on Thanksgiving Day. The holiday rom-com became the number one movie on Netflix by Monday. Based on a novel by the same…
In this week’s episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the Ninth Circuit Ruling on the trademark aspects of Dr. Seuss “mashups.” They also provide a recap of last week’s episode, which covers the copyright aspects of the case. Watch the video of this episode on the Weintraub…
In this week’s episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the Ninth Circuit ruling on the copyright aspects of Dr. Seuss “Mashups.” Watch the video of this episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel here. Listen to the podcast of this episode here: Listen to part two of this topic here. Watch part…
In this week’s episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss recent news stories reporting that police officers played copyrighted music during filmed encounters, ostensibly to keep the videos from being uploaded to the Internet. Scott and Josh discuss how copyright law, the…
In December 2019, Scott Hervey wrote about the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Taylor Swift by the writers of the song “Playas Gon’ Play.” The song was released by the girl group 3LW in 2001 and included the lyrics “Playa, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate.” In…
This week on The Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the copyright lawsuit over a Black Mirror episode starring Miley Cyrus, the plot of which filmmaker Geoffrey Blair Hajim said was lifted from his film “Strange Frame: Love and Sax.” Watch this episode on the…
In this week’s episode, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the complex process of clearing titles for Film and Television. They cover recent high-stakes litigation around entertainment titles, including Stouffer v. National Geographic Partners LLC, Jon Astor-White v. Daniel Strong (Empire), and the “Honey Badger” case. Watch this episode on the…
New York’s post mortem right-of-publicity statute recently came into effect. Its previous right-of-publicity laws were an extension of its statutory right of privacy which provided that “any person whose name [or likeness] is used within [New York] for advertising [or trade] purposes without . . . written consent” can sue…
In the 9th Circuit (as well as the 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 11th Circuits), the test for determining whether the use of a third-party trademark in an expressive work (i.e., use of a brand within a movie, TV series, video game, etc., including as part of the title of an…
The motion picture Wolf of Wall Street was based on a book of the same title written by Jordan Belmont. In the book, Andrew Greene, who was director, general counsel, and head of the corporate finance department at Stratton Oakmont between 1993 and 1996, was discussed extensively. In the book,…
Virginia Vallejo, a well known Colombian journalist and media personality, authored the memoir “Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar”. The book is a factual account of her romantic relationship with Pablo Escobar and a chronicle of the rise of the Colombian drug cartel. Vallejo claimed that certain scenes in the television series Narcos infringed…
The USPTO recently refused legendary quarterback Tom Brady’s application to register the mark TOM TERRIFIC. If you’re like me, you’re wondering why Tom Brady would want to register such a trademark. Well, according to Brady, he wanted to obtain the rights to the mark to prevent people from referring to…
