Music, Sports and Entertainment Law

Whether we attend a movie at the Cineplex, hear our favorite song on the radio, enjoy a play at the theatre, take in a baseball game, enjoy the excitement of a NASCAR event or the drama of a thoroughbred horserace, we seldom consider the complexity of the industry behind such events. The entertainment and sports industry encompasses a variety of legal practice areas including intellectual property, corporate, equine, labor, securities and tax, as well as litigation. Frost Brown Todd combines practitioners and resources in all of these areas, providing a total package of legal services for the sports and entertainment industry.

Understanding and meeting a client’s legal needs in the entertainment and sports field starts with a love for the arts and of the games. Many of the members of our Music, Entertainment & Sports Law Group have been where our clients are and they understand their industry, firsthand. We are and have been musicians, songwriters, thoroughbred horse owners and breeders, athletes and team owners.

Our Experience

Frost Brown Todd represents publishers, songwriters, performing and recording artists, video game producers, independent film producers, athletes, thoroughbred horse owners and breeders, big screen film companies, television and radio stations and professional sports leagues. On the "flipside," we have represented the licensed users of the rights owned by such creative artists and entities, including:

  • In Room One, an artist development company
  • A variety of performing and recording artists
  • A variety of record labels
  • One of the world's leading sports and entertainment personality licensors
  • Namesake Entertainment LLC
  • Caesars
  • Radio stations
  • National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, Inc.
    (Minor League Baseball)
  • Leading film studio and film technology company
  • Sound engineering companies
  • Leading video game publisher

In the Center of It All

Understanding and meeting a client's legal needs in the entertainment and sports field starts with a love for the arts and of the games. Several lawyers on this multi-disciplinary team have been where our clients are and they understand their industry, firsthand. They include former and present musicians, songwriters, thoroughbred horse owners and breeders, athletes and team owners.

We are recognized as one of the top entertainment firms in the country because we are strategically located in major sports and entertainment areas. With offices in the heart of thoroughbred country (Lexington/Louisville, Kentucky), Music City (Nashville, Tennessee), the birthplace of professional baseball (Cincinnati, Ohio), and other central U.S. locations, we are positioned to proactively and efficiently serve the region's sports and entertainment industry.

Music

We represent performing and recording artists in virtually every field of music from Country to Rock and Rap. Our lawyers represent recording labels and an artist development company. Our team of corporate, intellectual property and entertainment attorneys allows us to provide complete representation to artists, publishers, record labels, producers and others in the music industry.

Entertainment

Over the years, Frost Brown Todd has represented the creators of fictional stories and characters in the negotiation of agreements for the development and production of television series and theatrical motion pictures based on those characters. On the other hand, we have negotiated license agreements under which our clients acquire rights to create products, merchandise, promotions and advertising campaigns based on famous motion picture and television properties:
  • Batman®
  • Care Bears®
  • Ghostbusters®
  • Jurassic Park®
  • Minor League Baseball
  • NASCAR®
  • National Basketball Association
  • National Football League
  • Pokemon®
  • Star Wars®

Sports

Since 1988, we have served as counsel to the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, Inc., dba Minor League Baseball, and a Florida not-for-profit corporation consisting of 17 domestic and foreign professional baseball leagues.

Our work for the latter includes on corporate governance counseling and tax matters, litigation in state and federal court in challenges to the association's applications of its rules and by-laws, and under the antitrust and trademark law. We also represented Minor League Baseball before Congress concerning legislation designed to alter its status under antitrust laws. Finally, the Music, Entertainment & Sports Law Group has represented the league on commercial law matters involving the sale and relocation of franchises and negotiation of its contract with Major League Baseball. FBT has represented the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros in salary arbitration cases.

We have also handled negotiations with all major U.S. sports leagues and player associations for player and uniform likenesses in a wide variety of products, services and promotions, and handled similar matters for top NASCAR drivers and teams.

Business/Corporate

The international legal directory Chambers USA recently ranked FBT the top Corporate Law Firm in the state of Kentucky. This team of experienced corporate lawyers handles corporate matters, complex to routine, from business formation to advising clients on appropriate organizational structure to mergers and acquisitions.

Intellectual Property

From litigation to licensing, from prosecution to unfair competition, our IP team counsels clients in developing, obtaining and enforcing its creative assets. Our IP lawyers have been instrumental in licensing products based on such well-known properties as NASCAR, the National Football League, Minor League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. We have also licensed the personae of famous persons whether actors, athletes or heroes of other pursuits.

We handle intellectual property litigation for a variety of Fortune 500 clients in very diverse industries throughout the country, and we monitor trademark registration applications and remain engaged in projects through our international lawyer network in over 175 foreign countries.

Litigation

Representing corporations and individuals in virtually all aspects of civil and white-collar criminal litigation, our litigation success and experience are not limited to Mid-America, but includes trial successes and dispute resolution in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies throughout the country.

Tax Law

Our tax practitioners provide individualized tax advice after determining what's best for a client's business situation (i.e. corporation, partnership or limited liability company), mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, split-offs and other tax-free distributions, or settlement awards in contract and tort disputes. Most importantly, our tax planning advice focuses not just on immediate challenges, but we also attempt to anticipate the likely issues our clients will face as the business evolves and grows. We provide forward-thinking tax representation to ensure that business ventures, expanding opportunities, crossing borders, structuring deals and reaching new markets are limited only by imagination, not obligation.

Equine Law

Horse breeding, training, and racing is a form of entertainment and part of a serious industry. We offer a team of outstanding attorneys dealing with equine matters of every shape and size. From State Racing Commission hearings to equine litigation and tax planning, our equine lawyers are at the forefront in representing the equine industry.