Chapter 37: Sued!

The streets of LA were being decorated with colourful lights and all the signs were being cleaned. There was already a festive-party mood that had taken over LA.

Many clubs already had their places booked for some new year's party or Christmas party. LA just needs a reason to dig out the crazy and bring the 'party' out for all those who come here in dozens.

Sunny was back in LA by this time and he was in his office at Rover Pictures. He was lost in the project files when someone knocked on his door.

"Come in!" Sunny closed his file and answered and found the new legal assistant, Tim Kane, standing there.

"Sir, there is a letter for you. It seems we are getting sued. And sadly, we can't win this one." Tim handed a letter to Sunny who was confused about getting a lawsuit this early in his professional life.

"Blah Blah Blah...Blah Blah Blah...Fuck Me!" Sunny first read the boring parts and when he saw the main content, he could not help but feel like God was playing a joke on him.

He was getting sued by the Universal legal team because of the naming of his movie - 'Fast and Furious'.

Fact is, a man, Roger Corman filmed a movie with the same title and it was also on the same topic racing, and this was all back in 1954. He then sold the movie and its rights to Universal and they just woke up from some deep sleep and decided to sue them.

Sunny had no idea how to respond to this legal notice. He sent Tim away before calling Kenneth.

"Kenny (Kenneth's short name) do you know anything about the legal notice?" Sunny asked.

"Yes, I also got a call from legal. Thankfully, they just want some money. Let's hand it over to them and thank them. This matter will be finished before it even begins!" Kenneth said in a very relaxed tone.

Sunny couldn't help but feel angry at his tone.

"What do you mean to pay them money and thank them? They are suing us for using the title without their permission and claiming a total of four million dollars in damages.

Four million dollars for God knows what damages!" Sunny was practically shouting at this point, but Kenneth was quiet on the other end.

After Sunny finished shouting his piece, Kenneth spoke.

"And what do you think would have happened if they would have sued us after the film was released? They would have dragged this film out of the theatres to a courtroom and made sure, it is never released until we pay the damages.

Maybe delay it for about 3-4 years and in the meantime, release a movie made on our script. Grow up, Sunny. They are being generous to us and playing nice. These are the rules of the game.

Pay up, thank them and build a relationship. Who knows when we might need them?"

Kenneth spoke from his experience and Sunny had to swallow his pride. Sunny wanted to cut the call but Kenneth said - "Also, I hope you won't use that kind of tone with me in future. I humour you sometimes but don't think I am that tolerable."

Sunny had to apologize to Kenneth for his outbursts before putting down the phone. Even after two lifetimes of experiences and memories, matters related to money can make him lose his cool.

Sunny called legal and instructed them to pay the fees and then personally called the guy whose number Kenneth provided.

Currently, Universal Pictures was going through a rough phase due to a management clash between American workers and Japanese Owners (Matsushita Electric bought Universal for $6.6 billion in 1990.)

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Thankfully, they didn't care much about a small-time studio like Rover Pictures but were interested in making quick money. Rover Pictures made Pokemon and it was a huge hit. So, Universal's legal team just wanted to earn a quick buck rather than go through a long lengthy legal trial.

The next day, Sunny changed the movie's name - Need For Speed after their legal team assured him that this was not under some trademark or copyright.

Sunny immediately registered the copyright along with a few other titles - I FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED, NEED FOR SPEED: MOST WANTED & NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERCOVER.

Sunny wanted to register more copyright titles but legal told them it was unnecessary as after booking these titles, anyone or everyone in the entertainment industry would avoid the use of the 'Need For Speed' title.

Sunny then had to call someone; someone he had never called after the release of his first film.

"Hello, Mr Anthony. Yes, Sunny this side. How are you?" Sunny called Anthony Pantaleoni, father of Tea Leoni to get some expert help with the case with his Internet Company.

Rover Net is doing some ground-breaking work but until now, he has not registered any patent or filed any copyrights other than the company name. That too was done by Merrill Lynch otherwise he would have never thought about it.

"Yes, Mr Sunny. You are calling me now which means you need some legal help. Correct?" Anthony as an old, experienced lawyer immediately knew Sunny's intention.

"Yes. Can you connect me to some really good guys who are experts in copyrights, patents and similar stuff? I have started my own company and suddenly I found myself lacking in this regard.

The legal team here is good with entertainment laws but they don't have someone like this in their team." Sunny clearly told his requirement.

Anthony thought for a few minutes before he asked, "You want to hire a guy full time or hire a company to do this work?"

Sunny was now again confused but then decided to hire a company for this rather than hiring his own lawyers for now.

"A firm would be the better choice," Sunny honestly replied.

"Then I suggest you call the guys in Robins Kaplan. They just won an amazing case with $96 million compensation against a Japanese giant. Trust me, these guys have good solid records, and they play the court well." Anthony gave him free advice and Sunny thanked him multiple times before getting a meeting with these guys.

Three days later, Sunny hired Robins Kaplan to check out his internet company and amazingly in just one week, these guys filed documents to register 5 patents for him.

Sunny had no idea that one day these patents would save his browser and act as the biggest support during browser wars.

However, he finally felt a lot more secure with these patents. After the rocky start of December, Sunny got buried under the year-end reports and could not find personal time before the last week. And that was only because Christmas was coming.

Sunny wanted to meet Sofia on Christmas and celebrate New Year with her. However, Sofia was out with her family ditching Sunny with some excuse and it felt like she was busy with her own life.

Sofia has been distant in the last few months, and the same was true for Sunny. The Passion and the connection they had at the beginning of this year, were simply gone after such a long gap.

Relationships are like soft fragile plants. They always need timely care and in this case, that plant never got the attention it needed.

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