Chain of Title
As it is common for scripts to be stuck in development hell, the options for a script may expire and be re-sold multiple times. As well, producers who purchase an option and re-work the script own the rights to their own derivative work- while the original rights holder owns the underlying rights. This lineage is referred to as the chain of title. This lineage can become cloudy if the underlying rights are divided. Producers may purchase the rights to specific territories (i.e. a country, the entire world, or the universe) and/or they may purchase ancillary rights such as merchandising rights.
In some cases, it may be uncertain as to the exact owners of a particular version of a script and to the exact set of rights. It is important for an entertainment lawyer to determine how 'clean' a chain of title is.
Read more about this topic: Film Rights
Famous quotes containing the words chain of, chain and/or title:
“How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)
“From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“To revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment.... All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple—a few plain words—”My Heart Laid Bare.” But—this little book must be true to its title.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)