Court Raises "Kane" Suit

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has revived a lawsuit filed by the daughter of Orson Welles in which she claimed that the estate of the renowned filmmaker is entitled to a percentage of the profits from sales of Citizen Kane. The film is currently part of the library of films owned by Turner Entertainment Co., a division of Time Warner. An attorney for Beatrice Welles later told Bloomberg News that under an agreement she signed with Turner the reversal of the lower-court decision will entitle her to compensation amounting to "seven figures." But David Quinto, a lawyer for Turner Entertainment, disagreed, saying, "Beatrice Welles hasn't won anything yet." He suggested that the case may still go to trial.

Judge to dismiss Carol Burnett's lawsuit

A federal judge said he will dismiss Carol Burnett's $2 million copyright infringement lawsuit over the use of her cleaning woman character in the animated series "Family Guy."

U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson said in a written tentative ruling Friday that he planned to dismiss the lawsuit against 20th Century Fox. He will issue a final ruling later.

The 74-year-old comedian sued the studio in March, contending that the Fox show didn't have her permission to include her Charwoman character in an April 2006 episode.

The episode portrayed the character as a cleaning woman in a sex shop and also used a version of the theme music to her old TV series without permission, the lawsuit claimed.

At the time, the studio said it was surprised by the lawsuit over what amounted to about an 18-second scene.

Marilyn Monroe loses publicity right

Movie icon Marilyn Monroe lost her right of publicity when she died in 1962, a New York court has ruled. It was decided on Wednesday the Some Like It Hot star relinquished power to control the commercial use of her name and image after her death, giving permission for family members of late photographer Sam Shaw to continue selling and licensing pictures of the actress, including the iconic photo of the blonde beauty standing above a subway vent. Monroe's estate sued Shaw Family Archives and Bradford Licensing Inc. in 2005 in Indiana alleging violations of the superstar's right of publicity. The dispute arose after the release of controversial T-shirts featuring an image of the star taken by Shaw. Shaw's family subsequently filed a declaratory relief action over the dispute in New York federal court.