California-based Paramount Pictures is facing a lawsuit from Wulong Karst Tourism, a Chinese tourism company, because Paramount was supposed to include the company’s logo in its film “Transfomers: The Age of Extinction” and failed to do so. The China Movie Channel, one of the movie’s co-producers, is being sued as well. The case was filed in 2014 and is still being heard.
Scenes were shot in China, and the tourism company claims it paid $750,000 for the inclusion of its logo. According to the local press, the China Movie Channel and Paramount say they will make up for the omission. Reportedly, the movie’s director, Michael Bay, has made an advertisement for a Chinese resort, and tourism may increase as a result of props that remain at the filming site. Wulong Karst Tourism is asking for $27.7 million.
The film is one of several that have been made recently with Chinese investments, and it was China’s fourth-biggest film ever. It has made $320 million in that country.
Businesses of all sizes may face lawsuits due to claims that contracts or other agreements have been breached, or companies may need to file cases themselves. Depending on the industry, this can range from a complaint that work was not completed within an agreed-upon time table, a disagreement over the quality of a product, a lack of payment, corporate disputes and many other issues. Disputes with employees or even business partners may arise as well. In some cases, a contract may be ambiguous, or if it is poorly written, it might not even be legally binding. A company may want to have the advice and counsel of an attorney who has experience in handling these types of business litigation.
Source: The Guardian, “Paramount sued by Chinese company for failed Transformers product placement,” Benjamin Lee, April 27, 2016
