Jacko Estate Dismissed From Hologram Case

LAS VEGAS (CN) - A federal judge dismissed Michael Jackson's estate and Dick Clark Productions from a patent lawsuit stemming from a Jackson hologram performance during the 2014 Billboard Music Awards.

Plaintiffs Hologram USA, Musion Das Hologram and Uwe Maass filed the joint stipulation to dismiss without prejudice MJJ Productions, Dick Clark Productions and the estate of Michael Jackson from an amended complaint that continues against Pulse Evolution, Pulse Entertainment, Musion3D, and three people.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro signed the order on Nov. 9.

Plaintiffs' attorney Ryan Baker said the move enables the hologram companies to focus on the defendants who were most involved in the patent infringement.

The plaintiffs claim to own the technology used to create a 3-D Tupac Shakur hologram that appeared during the 2012 Coachella music festival, which they say was used to create the Michael Jackson hologram during the 2014 Billboard Music Awards.

They claim defendants William James Rock and Ian O'Connell "fraudulently concealed" ownership of the patent, which was assigned in the same series of patents owned by the plaintiffs.

They say the patent is a continuation of two others the defendants used to create the moving image, after which they "made false statements to numerous media outlets and potential customers that they own the technology used to generate the Michael Jackson hologram."

And they claim the third individual defendant, John C. Textor, a former business associate and CEO of lead defendant Pulse Entertainment, used the patented technology to produce the Michael Jackson hologram.

The Michael Jackson hologram sang "Slave to the Rhythm" and performed with several stage dancers to a full audience at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The performance was broadcast nationally on ABC.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs describe the patented technology as "an amazing new technique of projecting video to create the illusion of life-size, full color, 3D moving images. All of the images used in this system are three-dimensional, but are projected as two dimensional images into a three-dimensional stage set

Without the technology, they claim, the Michael Jackson hologram could not have been created.

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