Los Angeles: On Friday, The Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sued a Hollywood ticket broker for allegedly
acquiring tickets to this year’s annual award show and selling them to the
general public for thousands of dollars.
The suit’s allegations include inducing breach of contract,
aiding and abetting trespass and trademark infringement. The suit seeks unspecified
damages and an injunction preventing Key Access from receiving or transferring
Academy Awards show tickets in the future. The suit states that tickets to the
show are provided to “select recipients” under an agreement they will not be
sold or transferred. However, some of those who obtain the tickets are induced
to sell them to ticket brokers for thousands of dollars, according to the
lawsuit.
In February, Key Access
placed an ad on Craigslist.org offering to sell Academy Award show tickets for
$37,000, the suit alleges.
A third party not
identified in the lawsuit contacted Key Access and a representative said that
two orchestra seats were available for $45,000 each and balcony tickets for
$27,500, the suit alleges.
“They provided wire
instructions for the electronic transfer of funds to purchase the tickets,” the
suit states. But the transaction did not take place, according to the
complaint. In February, the Academy found out that Key Access was displaying an
Oscar statuette image “substantially or confusingly similar to” the Academy’s
trademark figure, the suit states. The academy sent a letter to Key Access
demanding they stop using the image and refrain from selling or transferring
award show tickets, the suit states.
Key Access responded by
stating the alleged trademark infringement was a mistake, but denied offering
any tickets for sale, according to the lawsuit.
No comments:
Post a Comment