The recently released film Letters to Juliet had been tied up in a legal battle between Summit Entertainment (the films production studio) and EPV Enterprises (another studio claiming rights to a similar project). EPV claims that they have the rights to the story, which they licensed from another company ErgoArts. ErgoArts originially acquired the life rights to the group “Club di Giulietta”, the actual organization that answers letters written to Juliet in Verona, Italy. Summit claims that their project doesn’t violate any existing copyrights, but EPV fired back with a counterclaim seeking an injunction against the release of Summit’s film. While EPV claims their project is strikingly similar to Letters to Juliet, Summit went ahead with the film release as scheduled.
What is interesting about this case is the complications arising because of timing. It strikes me that EPV is upset simply because Summit got their story out before they could do the same. Summit never claims to have rights to the story of the “Club di Giulietta”, and I’m sure EPV/ErgoArts made sure they secured those rights in their option agreement with the club. There is no reason why both production companies could not release similar stories. Sure, a claim to market harm is valid (audiences will probably not go see two movies about the same thing). But legally, there is no error here.
Another question arises regarding life rights. Just how do life rights to an organization work? This particular entity has been in existence for over 100 years. Do life rights enter the public domain at some point? Can just anyone write a story about a dead guy if he’s been dead long enough? I’m not sure how that works, but it’s an interesting question.
link to article: http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/04/letters-to-juliet-injunction-release.html
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