The much-anticipated follow-up to the smash hit The Hangover will debut, as scheduled, tomorrow night. There had been some trepidation among comedy aficionados that the opposite might be true after Mike Tyson's face tattoo artist, S. Victor Whitmill, attempted to shut down the film because of its unauthorized use of his artwork. However a judge ruled earlier this week that an injunction wouldn't be appropriate because of the harm it could cause for independent movie theaters. This, of course, still leaves the door open for money damages or, more likely, a settlement.
Beside the benefit this provides to fans of college humor everywhere, this was also clearly a case where the economics of a situation played into and impacted the legal analysis; if it weren't for the potential for third parties to lose money in the event of an injunction, the legal analysis suggests that it would have been an appropriate remedy. As it is, all parties will likely benefit. Warner Brothers gets free promotion (less fairly negligible legal costs) and a scheduled release. Whitmill gets free promotion (again, less legal costs) and, in all likelihood, a nice settlement. This is just a guess, but tomorrow probably isn't going to be a bad day at the theater or the tattoo parlor...
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