In the legal dispute with the Russian Authors Society (“RAS”), AGP lawyers obtained an order overruling the decision of the arbitrazh (commercial) trial court ordering to pay royalty fee for cable broadcasting TV programs to the composers of music.
AGP team represented a Russian TV channel which had acquired a license to broadcast entertainment TV programs from a foreign licensor and then sublicensed the broadcasting rights to another Russian broadcaster.
Initially RAS requested making an agreement for payment of royalty fee and compensation in favor of the foreign composers to all participants of the chain of legal relationships, including the communications service provider. However, in court RAS claimed payment of compensation by the initial licensee, although the latter had sublicensed the OTA and cable broadcasting rights to another broadcaster who had a relevant agreement with RAS and paid royalty fee thereunder. The reason for making the claim against the initial licensee was that our client had a broadcasting license. The fact that the client did not use the music concerned for broadcasting on its cable channel was disregarded by the trial court. AGP team however proved and substantiated the excessiveness of the claimed amount, so the court reduced it by four times.
In the appellate proceedings, AGP lawyers succeeded in proving that the trial court’s conclusion on use of the music was not true to facts of the case.
The appellate court overruled the trial court’s order and dismissed the RAS claim for the reason that it was made against improper defendant and thus no compensation could be recovered.
Veronika Popelenskaya, senior lawyer, and Elena Gorodisskaya, head of IP group, represented the client.
