On September 17, 2014, billionaire and FilmOn founder Alki David achieved legal triumph when he persuaded a California federal judge to decline a false advertising claim that was relevant to what he stated throughout a CNN interview. This was the partial result of a fight over who owned rights to revive dead artists such as Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe by means of holographic-like projection equipment.
David had purchased Hologram USA and depended on the technology’s future. About the time that Billboard Music Awards introduced Michael Jackson’s re-creation, he set off on both a lawful and promotion campaign. David confronted in court those who had generated the display for supposedly breaching his patents’ rights. By means of the media, he advertised the different uses for the projection equipment. The day following the May 18 Billboard Music Awards, CNN interviewed David, airing the slogan, “Michael Jackson Hologram: How’d They Do It?”
Pulse Entertainment then sued David for $10 million. The complaint stated that he misleadingly received credit for generating and using the visual effects display in a nationwide-broadcasted CNN interview.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson observed that the misrepresentation allegation was based in fraud and suggests that Pulse has the responsibility of indicating the statements it maintained were misleading. In the decision, he also declines an opposite palming off claim and does not believe that Pulse’s claims fit in as counterclaims in the continuing patent infringement lawsuit.
