Prospect Park Sues ABC Over ‘One Life To Live’ & ‘All My Children’ Licensing Agreement

[Marco Dane]

What the hell has ABC been doing???

Prospect Park claims that ABC has been breaking the licensing agreement and sabotaging Prospect Park’s efforts to continue AMC and OLTL online.

[ChitHappens]

Very good possibility!

[ChitHappens]

Something that PP agreed to and was paid for it. PP's mistake is that they went into negotiations over sharing the characters and that didn't work. They simply should have said the characters come back as of 03/xx/13 - THE END. Instead they wanted the actors/performer more than they cared about the characters.

This looks like sour grapes to me.

[Vee]

That doesn't mean anything. It could well be a legitimate complaint and they may or may not have done something deliberately brazen re: the actors or characters, which are intellectual property. Nothing would surprise me with the way GH has mishandled this. But PP - while I profoundly appreciate what they're doing with AMC and OLTL - is also not exactly known for the soft touch. So this may just be a very hamfisted tactic to try and shut down GH's recent moves with the actors and the pointless new characters. There's no way to know yet who's at fault.

[dragonflies]

I think so too

[NothinButAttitude]

OK, good. Glad someone sees what I'm saying, and not offending anyone. . . yet.

[Vee]

They licensed the characters to GH for a year. The year is long since up, so they are gone. They were under no obligation to give them back to GH again.

[John]

ABC blocked PP from talking to ME & KA. RH had a different contract & he was able to work with them.

[Vee]

We don't know that.

I can see it happening at GH, but we don't know anything of the sort.

[marceline]

Anything is possible but I hope that's not the case. PP already got off to a rocky start the first time they tried to launch. Filing a lawsuit against ABC/Disney would be an expensive and foolish way to get publicity.

[chrishntr]

I just hope it doesn't affect the premiere of OLTL and AMC, I've been so looking forward to having my show back, dammit!

[ChitHappens]

I don't disagree. The problem is, they negotiated with ABCd to share the characters because the actors/performers, the actual draw, didn't want to go. PP should have ended the relationship once the characters were returned to them and focused on OLTL as a whole an recast but not right away.

[Vee]

We don't know who did or didn't want to go. We've never heard anything legitimate or confirmed of that sort from any of those performers or their representatives, or anyone on record. They don't have to end that relationship with Howarth - with the others, we just don't know what's going on.

[John]

Added to Org article

The lawsuit won’t derail the plans for the AMC and OLTL re-launch on April 29. “These shows will go forward, and Prospect will address its right sin Court,” the suit said. “Regardless of how successful Prospect may be,the fact remains that ABC did not deliver what it promised, Prospect did not get what it paid for,and Prospect is now entitled to recovermillions of dollars in damages for ABC’s egregious conduct.” The complaint seeks monetary damages of at least $25 million. MORE

[Vee]

Sounds like a shakedown to me, to be honest, retribution for GH being so uncooperative. Of course, I said that when they first came back and I was wrong, so who knows.

If GH did lock the actors away or refuse to even collaborate they should be shamed for it. This is not necessarily the way to do it.