Legal advice is a necessity at one point or another for every business. Whether you use an attorney to assist you in corporate formation, to advise you on how to dissolve your company or to defend you in a lawsuit, at one point or another, legal counsel will be required.
To ensure that my business plan was sound and reasonable and to assess the potential risks associated with my business, I spoke with Meaghan Roberts. Ms. Roberts is an attorney who is licensed in the states of California and Texas and she specializes in the entertainment industry. I sat down with Ms. Roberts to "pick her brain" regarding my business plan and the impending pitfalls that I could face with my business. As my current Master's program course is Entertainment Law and we have concentrated on contracts, endorsements and intellectual property law, we agreed to focus our conversation on these three important topics.
Ms. Roberts' first piece of advice to me was to ensure that all pertinent business transactions have a contract that details the exact relationship between each party, each parties responsibilities, rights of each party and compensation, if applicable. She advised that I pay close attention to the details of the contract; it is the details, that holds "the essence of the contract."Although oral contracts are valid contracts, she strongly advised that I get all contracts in some type of writing, otherwise if litigation arises, there will ambiguity as to who agreed to what and what each party understands the agreement to mean. Interestingly, she explained that it is imperative that there is a "meeting of the minds" to validate the contract - both parties need to be in agreement with why they are entering into this contract and what is the expectation of this contract.
When the interview shifted to endorsements, she reiterated the importance of reading the contract in its entirety. The client, she states "will make the ultimate decision as to whether or not they decide if the money is reasonable, but as the representative of the artist, it will be your responsibility to ensure that the components of the contract are fair and are not too restrictive or unfair." When asked for clarification, Ms. Roberts further explained that as the "face" of an endorser's product, my client is creating a specific branding concept, which is one reason the endorser chooses my client at the onset; "to brand the product in a specific way to a certain demographic." Ms. Roberts goes on to say, "your client can either enhance the endorser's brand or ruin it. There is rarely an in between when it comes to product endorsement." As the manager of the celebrity or athlete, it will be my responsibility to keep them cognizant of their image as well as the image of the brand that they are endorsing.
Our final topic, intellectual property, Ms. Roberts admits, " is much more in-depth." She said that she would provide me with what she calls "the basics" regarding intellectual property. The first thing that she said is that the intellectual property of a business is much more important than it's physical property. The intellectual property is the "brain child of the business. You must first obtain a full understanding as to what intellectual property is and what type you are creating. Once this is done, you must then protect it by registering it with the proper governmental office." Ms. Roberts goes on to say that the laws regarding IP are " detailed, yet ambiguous." As I have always thought, she tells me that is prudent to seek the advice of legal counsel for issues surrounding intellectual property. According to Ms. Roberts, "one wrong move and your intellectual property could be jeopardized."
Although entertainment law is much broader than contracts, endorsements and intellectual property, per Ms. Roberts, "the three areas that we have discussed are three of the most important ingredients of entertainment law. Without extensive knowledge and training about these three areas, it would be similar to baking a cake without flour, eggs or milk."
Great analogy, I thought...and actually after this course, I agree!!
*Although Ms. Roberts does not have her own website, I have attached a link below that has a variety of entertainment legal liability podcasts...enjoy!
Entertainment Liabilities
