Both parties in this lawsuit, Michael Jackson’s Estate and Howard Mann working on the behalf of Jackson’s mother Katherine Jackson, came to a settlement agreement before the copyright case over the misuse of Jackson’s image was set to begin. Jackson’s estate settled for $2.5 million and a judge has restricted Howard Mann’s (CEO of Vintage Pop Media) right to use Michael Jackson’s image without his estate’s permission. HIs company operated a website entitled www.michaeljacksonsecretvault.com, but the court shut down his website through a federal court order. The images at issue here were mostly images of Jackson’s performances from a number of sources, such as the late pop-stars movie “This Is It.”
See Anthony McCartney, Michael Jackson Estate and Businessman Settle Copyright Case for $2.5 Million, The Washington Post, Sept. 4, 2012.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
