Bela
G. Lugosi
Of
Counsel
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Mr. Lugosi practices in the areas of intellectual property, entertainment, licensing, and business law, including both transactions and litigation.
Mr. Lugosi's litigation experience includes jury and non-jury trials, as well as appeals, in both state and federal courts. He has served as lead or co-lead counsel in numerous cases tried to a verdict, including a successful four and one-half month jury trial in The Three Stooges case entitled DeRita v. Scott. Mr. Lugosi is a past chairman of the Trial Lawyers and Alternative Dispute Resolution Sections of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Mr. Lugosi's transactional and other non-litigation experience in the entertainment field includes negotiating and drafting a wide range of agreements and legal instruments, such as, for example, contracts and licenses for the exploitation of intellectual property rights; motion picture, television, animation and merchandising contracts; trademark and copyright assignments; and publishing contracts.
As an entertainment executive, Mr. Lugosi negotiated licensing transactions and managed litigation relating to The Three Stooges' rights of publicity, both as licensor and as third party representative. His responsibilities and activities covered a wide variety of areas within the entertainment industry, including a theatrical motion picture, a television movie, a television special, direct to video films, a syndicated television series, a fan club, a convention, a mall-based retail store, book publications, look-alikes, a branded beer, a mail order catalog business and fulfillment center, and an e-commerce web site.
In 2004, Mr. Lugosi was appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as an Alternate Member of the Assessment Appeals Board. Recently, Los Angeles Magazine selected Mr. Lugosi as a 2005 Southern California Super Lawyer.
Areas
of Practice:
Business
Litigation
Corporate Transactions
Intellectual Property Law
Bar Admissions:
California
U.S.
District Court for the Central, Southern
and
Eastern Districts of California
Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals
United
States Supreme Court
Education:
Juris
Doctorate/LL.B
University
of Southern California
Bachelor
of Science
University
of Southern California
Affiliations:
Los
Angeles County Bar Association
Sections: Intellectual
Property, Environmental
Law and Taxation (Member, State and
Local Taxation Committee)
California
State Bar Association
Intellectual Property Section
Association of Business Trial Lawyers
Beverly Hills Bar Association
Sections: Entertainment
Law, Litigation,
Intellectual Property, Internet
and
New Media (Member, Executive
Committee) Chancery
Club
Business
Experience:
Lugosi Enterprises
- President (1963-Present)
Licensing and enforcing the
rights of
publicity of Bela Lugosi.
C3 Entertainment, Inc. - Director and
Executive Vice President, Corporate
Acquisitions & Development
(1995-Aug 1999)
Articles:
The
Commercial Value Of Rights Of
Publicity: A Picture Is Sometimes
Worth A Million Dollars,
ABA
Entertainment and Sports Lawyer
(Spring 2005) (co-authored with
Robert C. O'Brien)
United
States Right of Publicity Law,
Legalinterview, The Newsletter of the
Euro-American Lawyers Group,
Issue 11
(October 2004)
California
Statutory Right of Publicity For
Deceased
Celebrities And The First
Amendment,
Study
Materials, Legal Problems of
Museum
Administration, Smithsonian
Institution/ALI-ABA
(March 2002)
California Expands The Statutory
Right of
Publicity
For Deceased Celebrities While Its
Courts
Are Examining The First
Amendment
Limitations Of That Statute,
De
Paul University College Of Law,
Journal
of Art and Entertainment Law,
Volume
X, No. 2, p. 259 (Spring 2000)
Life
After Death,
(co-
authored with Caroline H. Mankey)
(April
1999)
Misappropriation
of Licensing and
Merchandising Rights of Celebrities
Syllabus
for Consumer Attorneys
Association of Los Angeles,
Annual Las Vegas Convention
(September 1998)
Licensing Guidelines,
La Fluers’s
Lottery
World Magazine (April 1998)
Speaking
Engagements:
Euro
American Lawyers Group
California Right of Publicity Law
(Los Angeles, CA - June 2004)
J.
Reuben Clark Law Society
Celebrity Right of Publicity Law
(Kirkland & Elllis, Los
Angeles, CA
May 2004)
Whittier
Law School
Right of Publicity - Pushing the First
Amendment Frontier
(Costa Mesa, CA, February,
2004)
California
State Bar, I.P. Section
The PTO Come to California
(San Francisco,
CA, April 2003)
Smithsonian
Instituion/ALI-ABA Program
Legal Problems of Museum Adminstration
(March, 2002)
Phi
Beta Kappa, So. Cal. Alumni Assn
John
Marshall School of Law
(Chicago, IL, March,
1999; Oct. 2001)
The Federalist Society Conference
Free Speech, Right of Publicity and
Property Rights in Private Information
Whittier Law School - Summer Session
(Costa Mesa, CA - June,
2000 )
DePaul School of Law
(Chicago, Illinois - March,
2000)
American Association of Law Schools
(Washington, D.C., January,
2000)
ABA, Litigation Section, Committee on
Corporate Counsel
(Century City, CA - November,
1999)
Los Angeles County Bar, Intell. Prop. Section
(October, 1999)
Beverly Hills Bar Association,
Entertainment Law Section
(July, 1999)
Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) -
Star Law Day
(Universal City, California
- May, 1999)
Consumer Attorneys Association of
Los Angeles - 16th Annual Las Vegas
Convention
(September, 1998)
Los Angeles Estate Planning Council
( May, 1998)
Published
Decisions:
Comedy
III Prods., Inc. v. Saderup,
25
Cal.4th 387 (2001)
Wasyl,
Inc. v. First Boston Corp.,
813
F.2d 1579 (9th Cir. 1987)
Myers
v. Mobil Oil Corp.,
172
Cal. App. 3d 1059 (1985)
Tenneco West, Inc. v.
Marathon Oil Co.,
564
F. Supp. 318 (D.C. Mid 1983)
S. Jon
Kreedman & Co. v. Meyers Bros.
Parking-Western
Corp.,
58
Cal. App. 3d 173 (1976)
No
Oil, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles,
13
Cal. 3d 486 (1975)
No
Oil, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles,
13
Cal. 3d 68 (1974)
Union Pacific R.R. Co.
v. City of Long Beach,
24
Cal. App. 3d 594 (1972)
Department
of Agriculture v. Tide Oil Co.,
269
Cal. App. 2d 145 (1969)