Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and studio Miramax have settled a lawsuit over non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, based on Pulp Fiction. A new court filing indicates that the parties will request that the lawsuit be dismissed in the coming weeks, and they have offered a joint statement, as reported by Deadline. “The parties have agreed to move on from this matter and look forward to working together on future projects, including potential NFTs,” they said. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
Tarantino introduced his NFT lineup last year at the height of NFT mania, promising that they would all reveal a “secret” about his 1994 film. Tarantino said the NFTs were linked to media from the screenplay, to which he retained the rights, but Miramax filed a lawsuit because NFTs were an “emerging technology” that it could contractually benefit from. “Whatever limited rights Mr. Tarantino has to play the publishing of a screenplay, they do not allow the minting of unique NFTs associated with Miramax’s intellectual property,” wrote the company’s lawyers in January, when the first NFT sold for $1.1 million to a collective connected to its sales network Secret.
Had it gone through, the case could have set a precedent for future NFTs based on movies or other media. Warner Bros. and other studios have sold NFTs to promote films such as: Space Jam: A New Legacy and The Matrix Resurrectionsand the Miramax case could have determined whether these sales rights are guaranteed by existing trademark and copyright contracts that do not explicitly mention NFTs.
But if TorrentFreak notesTarantino and Miramax met last week to discuss a settlement, and it seems unlikely that the case will now go to trial. Meanwhile, the NFT and cryptocurrency markets have shrunk since the lawsuit was filed – so if more tokens are released in the near future, it’s doubtful the stakes will be nearly as high.
