Famed filmmaker Quentin Taratino announced in early November 2021 that he intended to mint and auction off non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of his original Pulp Fiction screenplay.  According to Tarantino, each of the NFTs will be augmented with audio “secrets”  about the film and his creative process. Tarantino is using his original hand-written scripts, which include deleted scenes, for the project. According to the token plan, one half of each NFT will be public and the other private, viewable only by the NFT owner unless they decide to share the content of “the secrets publicly with the world.”  Two weeks later, Miramax filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit against Tarantino seeking to enjoin him. NFTs are no fad and more and more artists and studios will look for opportunities to exploit this new and burgeoning market. Our panel of esteemed experts, including UCLA copyright professor Kal Raustiala, Noah Robbins, and Mark McKenna, with Tracy Rane of Ballard Spahr as moderator, will explore the copyright, trademark, and contractual issues involved in the case, including which aspects may make the issues sui generis to the Miramax and Tarantino dispute, and what aspects may have broader implications for studios and talent in general.

SPEAKERS

• Noah Robbins, Of Counsel, Ballard Spahr
• Kal Raustiala, Promise Institute Chair, Comparative and International Law and Director, UCLA Ronald Burkle Center for International Relations
• Mark McKenna, Faculty Co-Director, Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology & Sport Law
• Tracy Rane, Of Counsel, Ballard Spahr – Co-Moderator
• Daniel Dubin, Alston & Bird – C0-Moderator

**Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (provider # 2083) certifies that this activity has been approved for MCLE credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1.0 hours.

PRICING