Lutzker & Lutzker lawyers are deeply involved with the arts on both a professional and a personal level. Our clients include companies involved in producing, financing and distributing motion pictures and television and video programming, as well as those in photography, the music industry, theater and the visual arts. The firm regularly counsels these clients on intellectual property, contract, financing, rights acquisition and other business matters. A significant part of the firm’s litigation practice concerns enforcement of the intellectual property rights of creative artists. From starting their own art gallery specializing in the work of self-taught artists from around the globe to organizing a national touring exhibition from the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Arnold and Susan Lutzker have been dedicated to the arts at all levels.
Representative Matters
- Advising a film production company specializing in documentary films in connection with rights and music clearances and production and distribution agreements for an award-winning film
- Serving as general counsel to a major cultural organization, through expansion, rebranding and strategic disposition of key assets in a manner that continued the goals of the organization
- Negotiating book-to-film rights agreements, screenwriting agreements, distribution agreements and film financing agreements and counseling start-up companies in film production and distribution
- Litigating in federal court on behalf of a legendary singer alleging that a Hollywood film infringed his trademarks, persona and publicity rights.
- Creating a legislative strategy to protect classic films from colorization and other alteration and guiding litigation in Europe establishing the precedent of moral rights protection for American filmmakers
- Forming and managing the Cultural Treasures Foundation, which develops and presents educational programs on topics of cultural importance
- Forming and representing the Palace Arts Foundation in negotiating licensing, merchandising and publishing agreements for the international exhibition Palace of Gold & Light: Treasures from the Topkapi, Istanbul, which contained more than 250 precious and historic objects valued at more than half a billion dollars