While we're all mildly entertained by the ongoing fued between late night greats Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno, the legal implications of this entertaining midnight soap opera are rather complex, not to mention leave NBC (and, any network that potentially picks up Conan O'Brien) with ridiculous amounts of liability should any intellectual property rights be violated.
As the Wall Street Journal earlier reported, the contractual issues are about to be worked out any moment now. TMZ reported that Conan has scored at $32.5 million deal with NBC, but will lose the rights to the name "The Tonight Show". NBC is also rumored to have agreed to a severance package to employees of the show.
Under the terms of the deal, NBC doesn't have to pay Conan for any money he makes during the interim period between now and September 2010, which is the rumored date that he will be allowed back on the air as a late night host.
A source within NBC has reported to TMZ and ET that NBC has contracted to retain all intellectual property rights in Conan's show. This means that some of Conan's famous skits will not be allowed to travel with him to whichever network he decides to join.
Interestingly enough, it is rumored that Fox is the purchaser of the domain name www.conanonfox.com one week ago today, indicating their interest in the late night giant. If you attempt to visit the site, you are redirected to a twitter account set up as well for ConanOnFox. If Fox denies this, the website will probably be redirected later in the week.
National Law Journal has reported on the lawyers representing each side in this matter- Patty Glaser and Kevin Leichter of Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard & Shapiro are representing Mr. O'Brien, and NBC has retained Scott Edelman of Gibson Dunn working on their behalf.
Regardless, there should be many updates over the next few days as more details of any rumored agreements begin to leak. We'll be sure to follow the continuing legal drama and potential woes of either side.
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