Michael Kump

In Michael Kump’s practice representing high-profile entertainment and media figures in intellectual property matters, a big issue lately has been defamation.

“I don’t know if defamation cases are on the rise … but it is my impression that the scope of the First Amendment is … at the forefront of what people are thinking about and talking about,” Kump said. “That may be tied somewhat to the growth of social media.”

He is currently defending two well-known clients in defamation actions. He is representing Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, against accusations that she defamed her half-sister in her famous interview with Oprah Winfrey. Markle v. Markle, 8: 22-cv-00511, (M.D. Fla., filed March 3, 2022).

Kump won a motion to dismiss that claim at the end of March, but the judge allowed the sister to file a third amended complaint. He dismissed with prejudice a second claim that Meghan was at fault for statements in a book she didn’t write.

Kump also is defending the actress Evan Rachel Wood, who is being sued by Marilyn Manson for publicly accusing him of abusing her when they were a couple. The musician’s lawsuit also alleges that Wood and a second defendant pressured other women to claim falsely that he abused them as well. Warner v. Wood, 22STCV07568 (L.A. Super. Ct. filed March 2, 2022).

Kump filed an anti-SLAPP motion in the case that has turned out not to be the efficient proceeding such motions are intended to provide because Manson was allowed to conduct extra discovery. “This has not been quick, and it’s not been inexpensive,” Kump said. “Realistically, there isn’t a lot in litigation that is quick and is inexpensive.”

Other very high-profile clients are Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, who he has represented in protracted litigation with a hedge fund that had helped finance and operate a cosmetic line that licensed the sisters’ names and likenesses. “There were disputes all around,” Kump said, including “a whole set of intellectual property litigation in federal court.”

He won an injunction in a trademark action against the company that the 9th Circuit affirmed in 2017. Then, he obtained an $11.5 million arbitration award for them that the state appellate court affirmed in 2021. “We’re in the process of trying to enforce that judgment,” he said. Hillair Capital Investments LP v. West, B299897 (Cal. App. 2nd, dec’d July 6, 2021).

Kump also is at the Court of Appeal currently to defend the $30 million arbitration award he won for the “House of Cards” production company against Kevin Spacey. MRC II Distribution Co. L.P. v. Spacey, B324245 (Cal. App. 2nd, filed Oct. 17, 2022).

“I take a fairly expansive view of what constitutes intellectual property,” he said. “As media, in general, has grown and expanded so tremendously, so have the legal issues that relate to it.”

— Don DeBenedictis