Legal Geek No. 86: The Walking Dead and Business Self-Dealings

Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we review the lawsuit that TV network AMC is facing from an original showrunner of The Walking Dead.

https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp86

But before we dive into the fate of Negan and Lucille's wrath, I wanted to let this audience know that if you like this segment, I appeared on a recent episode of The Geek All Stars podcast with Dan the board game man on TMS PM. In the second half of that show, we discuss some interesting cases affecting board game companies and designers in longer form than I can here, so check it out if you are nerds like us.

That Geek All Stars discussion includes the recent Yarrington-Schlashinger dispute over a business deal gone bad in the board game industry, allegedly due to one business partner using his companies to self-deal with one another and take all the profits to himself. Which is interesting because it is very similar to this case about...[TWD theme].

Indeed, the former showrunner of The Walking Dead alleges that at least $280 million dollars has been fleeced from him largely as a result of self-dealing among AMC affiliates. To this end, he argues to a New York court that one affiliate of AMC produced the show and then licensed it at cut rates to another AMC affiliate, which avoids having the profits from the licensing which he shares in go to him, while all the revenue generated from the popular show stays with AMC and its affiliate companies. AMC obviously disagrees with this position.

It will be some time before we see this play out in front of a jury, as the New York judge hearing this case apparently does not have any jury trial openings even available until 2018. However, just like the zombie walkers in the show, AMC will have to dodge this threat in order to keep the high amount of profits it has made off this ongoing show and property.

The Bottom Line is, a lesson that is always learned from business deals gone bad is to get the proper protections in writing when making contracts setting up companies and business deals. If a minimum license fee or some other oversight or protection were built into the deal for producing and distributing The Walking Dead, then this dispute may never have seen the light of day, let alone waste time and money in court. Great foresight is always key in doing business and making deals.

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Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy