1 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:09,680 Speaker 1: day we bring you inside and analysis into the most 3 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:12,200 Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more 4 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:16,160 Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple podcast, SoundCloud 5 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:20,239 Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. The Oscar Goes 6 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,520 Speaker 1: to and the Oscar Goes to, And the Oscar Goes to. 7 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:27,760 Speaker 1: Millions of people will be watching this Sunday to hear 8 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 1: who the oscar will go to. Not many will be 9 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:33,760 Speaker 1: thinking about what legal problems might come up. But one 10 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 1: person who will be thinking just that is John Quinn. 11 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: He's one of the country's top trial lawyers and founder 12 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:42,479 Speaker 1: of the global law firm Quinn Emmanuel. He's also the 13 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: General Counsel of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 14 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:48,720 Speaker 1: and he joins us now, thanks so much for being here, John, 15 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: It's great to be here, June, nice to talk to you. 16 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:55,360 Speaker 1: You are known as a litigator. How did you get 17 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: it involved with the Academy. Well, back, I've been the 18 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:01,920 Speaker 1: General Council of the Academy May since nine six, and 19 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:07,800 Speaker 1: before that I was the Academy's Council for Intellectual Property matters. 20 00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:11,760 Speaker 1: So when the Oscar statuette itself is a copyrighted work 21 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,520 Speaker 1: of art. The word Academy Awards and the word Oscars 22 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: or trademarks of the Academy, and these rights are registered 23 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,040 Speaker 1: in the United States and in about a hundred countries 24 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,120 Speaker 1: around the world. So I started doing that type of 25 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: litigation and intellectual property enforcement work for the Academy back before. Well, 26 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: we just play a little clip there, so don't come 27 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:38,520 Speaker 1: after us. There's there's already been controversy around this year's Oscars. 28 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,640 Speaker 1: The show's host pulled out after a scandal, so there'll 29 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:45,280 Speaker 1: be no host in a somewhat changed format. What kind 30 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: of prep work have you been doing before the show? Well, 31 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,400 Speaker 1: this isn't the first time, of course that the Oscars 32 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: have not had a single host for the show, so 33 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: that's not something that hasn't happened before. But there's a 34 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: lot of work that goes into preparing for the Uskers. 35 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: I mean, there are contracts, of course, with talent that 36 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: appear vendors. Of course, there's in place a very important 37 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:12,519 Speaker 1: contract with ABC, which has been the Academy's broadcast partner 38 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: for many years. There are events that happened on the 39 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: Red carpet, all of which are covered by agreements. So 40 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:21,920 Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot that from a legal standpoint 41 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 1: that goes into the show. And then also it's very 42 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,320 Speaker 1: important that the Academy know who's in every seat in 43 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:30,880 Speaker 1: the show. They with a show that maybe we'll be 44 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,119 Speaker 1: watched by potentially a billion people around the world, many 45 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,080 Speaker 1: of them live, they need to know who's in the auditorium. 46 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: And every year there are people who try to uh 47 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,799 Speaker 1: sneak into the show. There are enforcement issues, there's a 48 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: police substation. Sometimes they're actually arrests made at the show. 49 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:52,239 Speaker 1: Last year, somebody stolen oscar Francis Dorman's oscar from the 50 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,399 Speaker 1: Governor's Awards party afterwards. So there's a lot of legal 51 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:58,639 Speaker 1: issues that come up. It's the biggest mistake I can 52 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,400 Speaker 1: think of on air was Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway 53 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 1: announcing the wrong Best Picture winner in twenty seventeen La 54 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: La Land instead of Moonlight. How did you handle the 55 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: problems that must have arisen from that, Well, I mean 56 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: there was a mix up Price Waterhouse, the wrong envelope 57 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: was given. Uh, you can imagine there was very extensive 58 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: debriefing with Price Waterhouse after that episode, additional measures were 59 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: put in place to try to make sure that something 60 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:31,160 Speaker 1: embarrassing like that did not happen again. Last year, the 61 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:35,120 Speaker 1: hashtag at the OSCARS was hashtag me too. Four years 62 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 1: ago it was hashtag oscars so white. Did you play 63 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: any role in addressing the concerns of those movements? Well, 64 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: in a general sense, yes, you know, the OSCARS so 65 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: wide issued. I mean, the Academy implemented a program where 66 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:54,480 Speaker 1: they very aggressively recruited, they had an outreached members of 67 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: minority communities and added hundreds of more members with diverse 68 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:02,960 Speaker 1: backgrounds in the addition to governors with diverse backgrounds. And 69 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:07,200 Speaker 1: of course we were consulted and involved in designing those programs. 70 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:10,680 Speaker 1: So so I would say to the extent there are 71 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:13,240 Speaker 1: legal issues that are implemented on those things we were 72 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,640 Speaker 1: involved in that. What's the biggest problem you've faced in 73 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:22,160 Speaker 1: these decades as general counsel? Oh, gosh, Uh, Fortunately there 74 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:27,160 Speaker 1: haven't been. Uh, the Academy hasn't really had major issues. 75 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 1: From time to time, there have been legal challenges, believe 76 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: it or not, where someone thought that they should have 77 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: gotten a credit for a producer oscar or somehow their 78 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:41,040 Speaker 1: film was, you know, not nominated, but it's been many 79 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: years since we've had a case like that. One year 80 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:46,120 Speaker 1: there was a foreign language film that was disqualified because 81 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,360 Speaker 1: it was submitted as a film from Paraguay when actually 82 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: it was a Brazilian film. The Academy is an organization 83 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: of about four DRED employees, so you can imagine from 84 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,440 Speaker 1: time to time there are hr issues that come up. 85 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,720 Speaker 1: I mentioned the Intel actual property issues, trademark copyright issues. 86 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: I would say the biggest single issue was many years ago, 87 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: perhaps twenty years ago, there was a challenge to the 88 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: Oscars copyright itself, the statuette, and there was an argument 89 00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:18,560 Speaker 1: made that we had lost the copyright in the Oscar 90 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,960 Speaker 1: because it was given away without a copyright notice before 91 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:25,080 Speaker 1: ninety one and that it was in the public domain. 92 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: Ultimately we won that argument. That is interesting. So where 93 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,880 Speaker 1: will you be during the show on Sunday night, well, 94 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: after the red carpet and uh the Dolby Lounge. I 95 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:40,920 Speaker 1: will be in the in the auditorium and enjoining the show, 96 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:44,160 Speaker 1: enjoying the show, or you're looking out for things in particular. 97 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my best to enjoy the show, all right. Well, um, 98 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:51,800 Speaker 1: it's amazing that you do. How much of your time 99 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,120 Speaker 1: does this take? Actually we have about a minute here 100 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:58,160 Speaker 1: because you have such a heavy litigation practice. Well, you know, 101 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:00,839 Speaker 1: it's not just me. There's a lot of my partners 102 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:03,080 Speaker 1: who work on different issues that come up. There might 103 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,839 Speaker 1: be insurance issues during the course of the year, insurance 104 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,240 Speaker 1: coverage issues, intellectual property issues, as I mentioned, human resources 105 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: and employment issues. So my time personally, it's not a 106 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,280 Speaker 1: lot of my time, but for our firm as a whole, 107 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:19,960 Speaker 1: the different lawyers that get involved with the different types 108 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,240 Speaker 1: of issues, like the museum. The Academy is building this 109 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:26,000 Speaker 1: fantastic museum that will be the number one museum in 110 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 1: the world on motion picture study. It's a three million 111 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:31,840 Speaker 1: dollar project. If you account all the time that all 112 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 1: our lawyers put in, it's not it's a considerable amount 113 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:36,599 Speaker 1: of time. Thanks so much for being on the show. 114 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:40,000 Speaker 1: John enjoy Sunday night. I hope nothing comes up to 115 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:42,719 Speaker 1: take your attention away from the show. That's John Quinn 116 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 1: of Quinn Emmanuel and he's General Counsel of the Academy 117 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Thanks for listening to 118 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe, and listen to 119 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 1: the show on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot com, 120 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: on slash podcast. I'm June Rosso. This is Bloomberg. M HM.