Terminator: Genisys
Courtesy of MPC/Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection
Visual effects company Rearden has settled one of the few remaining lawsuits, this time with Paramount, over the unauthorized use of motion-capture technology by a major Hollywood studio.
The parties on Monday filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit, which accused Paramount of infringing Rearden’s VFX software, MOVA Contour, on the 2015 film. Terminator: GenisysAccording to court filings, Rearden’s decision marks the end of a legal offensive against the studios that he began in 2017 with a massive complaint asking the court to block the release of several films by Disney, Fox and Paramount that feature characters created using the stolen technology.
The agreement follows Rearden reaching an agreement last month to settle a similar lawsuit over its use of MOVA. Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Deadpool, Fantastic Four and Night at the Museum: Secrets of the CrownTerms of the settlement were not disclosed.
What may have influenced the decision to settle the lawsuit: A jury in Oakland awarded Disney just $600,000 in damages after determining that Disney had infringed on Rearden’s technology to create animated CG characters. beauty and the beastThis amount was only a fraction of the damages Disney could lose in the lawsuit, threatening its profits. beautyRearden sought an award of over $100 million, arguing that the film’s box office success was due to MOVA’s VFX work, which shows that the jury has not contributed significantly to the film’s production. beauty Box office success was largely due to Rearden’s technology: Disney attributes roughly $345 million of the film’s $255 million profits to its use of the software.
Five months later beauty After the film’s theatrical release, Disney was sued by Rearden, alleging that the company had improperly used its technology in three films. Guardians of the Galaxy and multiple the avengers At the heart of the dispute was whether DD3, a company formed by Disney and other studios, owned the technology. A complicated chain of ownership involving bankruptcies and fraudulent sales has resulted in a virtual confusion over ownership and licensing.
Rearden, a company started by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Pearlman, sued Paramount in 2017, alleging that MOVA was used to make Arnold Schwarzenegger look younger. The suit sought a cut of the film’s profits.
As a precursor to Rearden’s legal battle with Disney, in 2016 a federal judge froze Digital Domain’s MOVA license with a preliminary injunction targeting DD3 affiliates Shenzhen Haitiancheng Technology and Virtual Global Holdings, a British Virgin Islands-based company that thought it owned MOVA and licensed it to DD3. U.S. District Judge John Tiger found that the companies had “fraudulently” transferred ownership of the technology between various Chinese companies. The order set the stage for Rearden to go after the various studios using the technology.
Paramount and Kelly Krauss, an attorney for the studio, did not respond to requests for comment.
