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Michael Jackson hologram dispute settled
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 18 March 2016
A legal dispute stemming from a performance by a hologram version of Michael Jackson at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards has been settled.
As previously reported, Alki David’s Hologram USA accused John Textor’s Pulse Evolution, which staged the Billboard performance, of patent infringement. David claimed that his company was the exclusive licensee of the ‘hologram’ technology employed – really an updated version of the nineteenth century theatre trick ‘Pepper’s Ghost – in the US.
In a countersuit, Pulse claimed that David was a “notorious infringer of intellectual property rights” and, anyway, the German company through with Hologram USA had gained its licensing deal had now gone out of business. Textor also later filed another lawsuit accusing David of cyberstalking.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the settlement between the two companies puts an end to both the infringement and the cyberstalking cases. In a slightly loaded statement, a spokesperson for Hologram USA said: “Though the terms of the agreement are confidential, we were very happy to receive Pulse’s settlement”.
This doesn’t mean a complete end to the controversy around the hologram-esque technology though. THR also reports that Ian O’Connell, a British businessman who was involved in the company that originally built the technology used by Hologram USA, is now suing David’s company for a variety of things, including patent infringement, breach of contract, tortious interference and fraudulent misrepresentation.
