TRO Succession Wars and Harmony Gold

[Jayof9s]

My workplaces chief counsel calls this “Motion Practice “ and is the lawyer racking up fees for thier own benefit, and to incentiveize thier client to reconsider the costs of moving forward with current strategy ...

This begs the question of if HGs counsel thinks this is a losing fight at this point

Didn't HG lose/replace their counsel a few months ago? I seem to recall reading about it on a post but it's been a while and I couldn't track it down. That never really bodes well for your case when your representation nopes out on you.

[shinr]

Didn't HG lose/replace their counsel a few months ago? I seem to recall reading about it on a post but it's been a while and I couldn't track it down. That never really bodes well for your case when your representation nopes out on you.

I think it was during Summer last year that the previous Lawyer team saw the writing on the wall with the Tatsunoko/BigWest arbitration and either walked out or got fired for refusing to continue working on the shaky case.

[ColBosch]

I think it was during Summer last year that the previous Lawyer team saw the writing on the wall with the Tatsunoko/BigWest arbitration and either walked out or got fired for refusing to continue working on the shaky case.

Well, they were replaced by the current team, and HG immediately threw the previous firm under a very large bus. But why they left is unknown and unknowable.

[pheonixstorm]

More huff n puff by HG yesterday

#121

SURREPLY filed by Plaintiff Harmony Gold U.S.A., Inc. re87 Second MOTION for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff's Lack of Standing to Assert Copyright Infringement Claim (Hughes, Andrew)

# 122

Supplemental DECLARATION of Christy Duran filed by Plaintiff Harmony Gold U.S.A., Inc. re87 Second MOTION for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff's Lack of Standing to Assert Copyright Infringement Claim(Hughes, Andrew)

[abou]

Ugh... make it stop.

[klarg1]

Ugh... make it stop.

Is there any upper limit to how many times the two parties can go back and forth like this? (like a cut-off date or something?)

[Geont]

# 122 - Supplemental DECLARATION of Christy Duran filed by Plaintiff Harmony Gold U.S.A., Inc. re87 Second MOTION for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff's Lack of Standing to Assert Copyright Infringement Claim(Hughes, Andrew)

Who exactly is Christy Duran? I am confused by Google search. It is president of HGUSA or what position he/she has?

[pheonixstorm]

Not sure exactly but she was mentioned in the emails (or received said emails) that were listed in docket 110 or 119?? Don't remember. I posted about the docket and most of the exhibits a few pages back.

[abou]

Unless there is a magically produced contract with Big West, they are just spinning their wheels at this point. Fingers crossed for a judgement tomorrow.

[MarauderD]

My workplaces chief counsel calls this “Motion Practice “ and is the lawyer racking up fees for thier own benefit, and to incentiveize thier client to reconsider the costs of moving forward with current strategy ...

This begs the question of if HGs counsel thinks this is a losing fight at this point

What I wonder is how many motions do they get to file before Judge Zilly gets to rule on PGI's motion to dismiss. I was hoping we would get a ruling on that one this week, but it seems like HG's team is intent on drowning the Judge in motions.

Does the Judge have the discretion to just throw his hands up and say, "enough motions, ruling on motion to dismiss" or does he have to address all of HG's motions first?

[sadlerbw]

Does the Judge have the discretion to just throw his hands up and say, "enough motions, ruling on motion to dismiss"...

Yes...to the ruling on the motion to dismiss part. Telling them to stop filing motions would be a bit harder, but there isn't anything procedural that I'm aware of that would prevent the judge making a ruling on the motion to dismiss any time now if they were so inclined.

However, given the current timeline, I'm not expecting to hear anything from the court until 5/4. PGI and HG may snipe at each other a bit more, but it looks like the 4th is the next time anyone is scheduled to be in front of the judge, so I'm not expecting much from the court until then.

[Charistoph]

Yes...to the ruling on the motion to dismiss part. Telling them to stop filing motions would be a bit harder, but there isn't anything procedural that I'm aware of that would prevent the judge making a ruling on the motion to dismiss any time now if they were so inclined.

However, given the current timeline, I'm not expecting to hear anything from the court until 5/4. PGI and HG may snipe at each other a bit more, but it looks like the 4th is the next time anyone is scheduled to be in front of the judge, so I'm not expecting much from the court until then.

If there is any response from the judge after this weekend, it probably won't be until the 18th of May.  From what I understand processes from the court only happen on the 3rd and 4th weeks of a month.

[abou]

Fingers crossed for something good when we wake up tomorrow.

[glitterboy2098]

from the look of the recent HG filing documents shared on the facebook BT group i'm in (documents 121, 122, 123), this appears to be HG's current legal strategy..


they are now backtracking and claiming that it isn't the 1984 license they got for robotech that gives them the rights, it is the distribution rights to Macross DYRL (film and toys) they got from tatsunoko in 2008.. though having skimmed the documents in question, even my limited legal knowledge tells me that they don't actually say anything about ownership of the images.. and since DYRL was made using imagery owned by Big West, it probably wouldn't count anyway.. especially since the rights don't include video or traditional game rights..
(link to to the facebook thread in question..)

[ANS Kamas P81]

they are now backtracking and claiming that it isn't the 1984 license they got for robotech that gives them the rights, it is the distribution rights to Macross DYRL (film and toys) they got from tatsunoko in 2008..
(link to to the facebook thread in question..)

Which postdates the 2003 agreement and fallout of the Japanese courts finding for Big West owning those 41 characters only, so...of course they couldn't have gotten rights five years later that Tatsunoko knew they didn't have.  They're grasping for straws that don't even exist at this point

[ColBosch]

So they've changed their strategy YET AGAIN, and still cannot provide a single, clear piece of evidence in their favor. After all, if they did have an actual license including copyrights, all they would've had to done is show it to PGI's lawyers way back during the initial settlement discussions and all this never would've happened. Hell, they would've included it in their initial lawsuit filing. That they have failed, for over a year now, to provide the most basic evidence of the rights they are claiming, well, it boggles my mind.

Harmony Gold needs to wake up and smell the coffee. They have already lost this case, and now they're just running up the legal fees and the possibility of facing Rule 11 sanctions against their own lawyers.

Which postdates the 2003 agreement and fallout of the Japanese courts finding for Big West owning those 41 characters only, so...of course they couldn't have gotten rights five years later that Tatsunoko knew they didn't have.  They're grasping for straws that don't even exist at this point

And that Harmony Gold admitted to not having, and admitted to respecting the rights of the actual copyright holder, in documents that they submitted! Distribution rights is not the same as copyrights; if it was, it'd just be called copyrights!

[ANS Kamas P81]

Harmony Gold needs to wake up and smell the coffee. They have already lost this case, and now they're just running up the legal fees

Still a valid strategy if they can choke out PGI's wallet. 

[Korzon77]

Still a valid strategy if they can choke out PGI's wallet.

I don't know. I mean, at this point, saying: oh, yeah, the basis for our litigation to date actually isn't right, here's what we really meant? 

that angers judges, and by angers, I mean words that aren't allowed on this board. Not only that, because they didn't bring this up earlier, this is all but admitting that they have been suing PGI under false pretenses. 

Getting your legal fees back is a pretty difficult thing to do in most civil trials--I have a feeling that if HG contineus on this route, then the court may very well award them legal costs.

[runab0ut]

There's a couple of docs out... Saying that HG owns the videogame rights to the 36 ep of Macross and not the movie.

[marauder648]

Still a valid strategy if they can choke out PGI's wallet.

In all honesty this is what it feels like they are doing now, or trying to do.

[pheonixstorm]

Nothing new for Thursday.

As for the facebook post... I don't use facebook so can't view it. Anyone want to post a quote of the important stuff?? And did anyone get a pdf copy of 121 and 122?

[SCC]

from the look of the recent HG filing documents shared on the facebook BT group i'm in (documents 121, 122, 123), this appears to be HG's current legal strategy..


they are now backtracking and claiming that it isn't the 1984 license they got for robotech that gives them the rights, it is the distribution rights to Macross DYRL (film and toys) they got from tatsunoko in 2008.. though having skimmed the documents in question, even my limited legal knowledge tells me that they don't actually say anything about ownership of the images.. and since DYRL was made using imagery owned by Big West, it probably wouldn't count anyway.. especially since the rights don't include video or traditional game rights..
(link to to the facebook thread in question..)

Rights aren't spelled out in contracts like that. For example I know that right after the Lord of the Rings movies came out we got a computer game based on the movies, but someone ELSE managed to secure the rights to a game based on the BOOKS.

[Horseman]

Nothing new for Thursday.

As for the facebook post... I don't use facebook so can't view it. Anyone want to post a quote of the important stuff?? And did anyone get a pdf copy of 121 and 122?

I put the individual pages back together into a PDF the way I did with a few other things that were posted before.
121
122
122-1 (Exhibit A)
They're readable, but the quality of the original images was terrible.

[pheonixstorm]

LMFAO reaching for straws now aren't they.

[abou]

Those say a whole lot of nothing. Even the objection in the surreply is ridiculous.

[klarg1]

Those say a whole lot of nothing. Even the objection in the surreply is ridiculous.

I'll admit that I've more or less reached the point where I am just waiting for the next ruling or comment by the judge. None of the recent motions seem to have added a whole lot of substance to the case.

I would really never make it as a litigator.

[elf25s]

And this is the most disgusting thing about modern court systems. "Who cares if we're right, as long as we have more money to outlast the opposition!"

careful i used same argument before with different wording and got hammered for it.

[Luciora]

The more HG has to say, is more admissible evidence that can be used against them.  You can't backtrack on officially filed forms.  The fact we can call them out on it, being lay persons is telling.  So it's good there's a visible trail that the judge can point to and say, look,  you just admitted this under oath, so it's rule 11 for you because you didn't listen.

[sadlerbw]

Wait, so they have, readily available, the license agreement with Tatsunoko outlining their rights and such to the movie...but they need a letter rogatory to get the license agreement with Tatsunoko for the original series and the characters? At least, that is what I assume they would want the letter for...since they STILL haven't said what document they intend to ask for in the letter.

Also, these documents smack of exactly what the PGI lawyer complained about previously. HG introduced new arguments in such a way that PGI would not be allowed to effectively respond to them. HG is playing a dangerous game here. I'm fairly well convinced they are going to loose, but if they push this too far, they may go from just loosing to loosing and getting punished for their behavior.

[Pat Payne]

That exhibit about Ai Oboeteimasuka? is ridiculous. So they've had the broadcast and film distribution rights since 2008, and yet they didn't exploit them, instead making their Shadow Chronicles sequels? If I were sitting on "exclusive" rights for FOURTEEN YEARS to distribute a movie that anime fans in America view as a holy grail that they couldn't easily see till the advent of Blu-Ray (and still can't CHEAPLY see -- the Japanese Blu-Ray, last I checked, was hovering somewhere around $100 MSRP, depending on exchange rate) I'd be tripping over my own feet trying to get to Otacon, AnimeExpo, SDCC and every other con to announce a release in the US.

So, that raises the question -- what's prevented THEM?