Brando's estate sues over easy chair's name

Brando's estate suesover easy chair's name
LOS ANGELES -- Representatives of Marlon Brando's estate are suing two furniture companies and a retailer over the sale of a home theater chair called "The Brando."
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims misappropriation of the name of a deceased celebrity. The actor died in July 2004 and permission wasn't obtained to use his name, the estate claims.
The estate's representatives are asking for unspecified damages and a court order to halt the sale of any more goods using the Brando name.
The chairs are being sold by Southern California-based City Leather Inc., Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Palliser Furniture Ltd. and North Carolina-based Palliser Furniture Corp.
Jason Brainard, vice president of City Leather, said officials at his stores were told to stop using the Brando name when selling the chair. No decision has been made yet on what to rename the chair, he said.
Lawsuit seeks damagesfor licensing songs
LOS ANGELES -- The estate of late funk singer Rick James is suing a music publishing company it claims collected money from licensing his songs without permission.
The lawsuit, filed March 15 in Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages. It accuses California-based Brooklyn Music Publishing Group Inc. of collecting money from European music publishers and making new foreign deals without authority.
Music publishing rights are the rights to use a song composition for various reasons, such as using the tune in commercials, but they do not include rights to the actual recordings, which are typically held by record companies, said Larry Iser, the attorney who filed the lawsuit.
The company also has withheld key licensing information for songs and even some master recordings, the lawsuit contends.
Dozens of James' compositions are involved, Iser said.
A call to Brooklyn's attorney, Vincent Chieffo, wasn't immediately returned Thursday.
Brooklyn had a long-term contract to oversee the publishing rights to some of James' compositions, although not to his hit "Super Freak."
When James died in 2004, his trust decided not to renew the agreement, instead awarding the publishing rights to another company in January 2007.
However, Brooklyn has "essentially refused to stop administering the compositions," the lawsuit claimed.
That has made it "difficult, impractical and, in certain instances, impossible" to collect revenue from some songs, the lawsuit claimed.
Today's birthdays
Modeling agency founder Eileen Ford is 85. Former astronaut James Lovell is 79. Movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 75. Feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem is 73. Singer Anita Bryant is 67. Singer Aretha Franklin is 65. Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 64. Singer Elton John is 60. Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 59. Singer Nick Lowe is 58. Actress-comedian Mary Gross is 54. Actor James McDaniel is 49. Rock musician Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet) is 47. Actress Brenda Strong is 47. Actor-writer-director John Stockwell is 46. Actress Marcia Cross is 45. Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton is 43. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is 42. Singer-musician Jeff Healey is 41. Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas is 40. Singer Melanie Blatt (All Saints) is 32. Auto racer Danica Patrick is 25. Singer Katharine McPhee ("American Idol") is 23.