To understand what film and entertainment law lawyers are doing, one can start from the following four aspects:
1. The film and entertainment industry industry chain
The core industry chain of the film and television entertainment industry starts from project planning (including IP development), goes through project approval, investment and financing, project team members (such as film crews) formation, production, promotion and distribution, screening and broadcasting, and also includes business development (including derivative product development) during and after the period. There are many entities in this chain, including film and television investment companies, film and television production companies, film and television project companies, artist brokerage companies, promotional companies, cinemas, television stations, video websites, other film and television industry investment entities (especially film and television industry funds), ticketing operation companies, cultural communication companies, pan entertainment companies, and many other enterprises, organizations, and individuals related to film and television culture and media fields (artists, text or audio and video authors and performers, etc.). And all of these could potentially become your clients.
Film and television entertainment law lawyers can be said to follow closely in the entire industry chain, but obviously, because different entities play different roles in the industry chain, their legal needs are not the same, and our legal services will inevitably change according to the needs:
(1) Assist screenwriters and producers in establishing a systematic intellectual property protection system for copyright trading and management (copyright authorization, copyright protection, infringement prevention and relief, etc.);
(2) Assist the investment and financing entities of film and television projects in completing transaction architecture design, business negotiations, due diligence, contracting, execution of transaction plans, and risk monitoring;
(3) Assist shooting and production units in obtaining administrative permits, hiring creators and cast members, authorizing production materials, and handling public relations in emergency situations;
(4) For the promotion and screening of film and television projects, clients still need lawyers to provide professional legal services when determining the cooperation mode and channels for promotion, overseas distribution, project liquidation, and other matters;
In the placement of advertisements in film and television projects and business development at different stages, in addition to routine matters such as advertising cooperation models, subject qualifications and content compliance review, and commercial franchising, derivative cooperation (games, anime, stage plays, etc.), themed or commercialized projects may also lead to a new film and television project, which requires us to continue to provide protection.
2. The way lawyers provide legal services
According to the conventions in the Chinese legal industry, the legal services provided by lawyers can be broadly divided into two categories: litigation services and non litigation services. In the film and entertainment industry, our legal services are also classified in this category.
This "litigation service" is more appropriately defined as "dispute resolution service", which means that lawyers act as agents for clients, participating in civil, administrative, and criminal litigation cases tried by people's courts, as well as participating in arbitration cases adjudicated by arbitration institutions, and providing legal services to clients. The litigation and arbitration cases in the film and entertainment industry mainly include infringement disputes (copyright, portrait rights, etc.) and contract disputes. The types of contract disputes are quite diverse, typical of which are copyright authorization contracts, project investment contracts, distribution contracts, etc.
"Non litigation services" refer to other service methods besides litigation, mainly including "year-round legal advisors" and "specialized legal services". The year-round legal advisor mainly serves clients on legal matters related to their daily operations, and the service period is generally one year. Special legal services are legal services provided for a specific matter (such as project financing, establishment of film and television funds, etc.), generally with the service period from the beginning to the end of the specific matter.
For the same client, we may serve as their long-term legal advisor while also providing litigation services for a particular case or specialized legal services for a film and television project.
At present, our team is constantly launching innovative service models based on our accumulated practice experience and the case "big data" we have mastered. In the process of