Opinion ID: 2744910
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Any Other Affiliate

Text: The second phrase plaintiff claims is ambiguous is within the definition of Second Party. The Agreement defines Second Party as consisting of a group of music publishers including Mills Music, Inc., American Academy of Music, Inc., Gotham Music Service, Inc. and their predecessors in interest, and any other affiliate (Agreement, preamble). Plaintiff asserts that the affiliated foreign subpublishers are included in the term any other affiliate. Absent explicit language demonstrating the parties' intent to bind future affiliates of the contracting parties, the term affiliate includes only those affiliates in existence at the time that the contract was executed (VKK Corp. v National Football League, 244 F3d 114, 130-131 [2d Cir 2001] [The Releases's reference to 'affiliates' [is] stated in the present tense. Nothing . . . indicates the inclusion of future rather than present members]; Budget Rent A Car Sys. v K&T, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73024, at -11 [D NJ 2008] [the exclusive license at issue was not violated here because “[n]othing in the License Agreement suggests that the parties intended the License Agreement to extend to future corporate parents or affiliates”]). Furthermore, the parties did not include any forward looking language. If the parties intended to bind future - 9 - - 10 - No. 156 affiliates they would have included language expressing that intent. Absent such language, the named entities and other affiliated companies of EMI's predecessor which existed at the time are bound by the provision, not entities that affiliated with EMI after execution of the Agreement. As it is undisputed that the affiliated foreign subpublishers at issue here were not affiliates at the time the Agreement was executed, they are not members of the Second Party. Additionally, the use of present tense language in the Agreement also demonstrates that the parties intended that the Agreement would bind only affiliates in existence at the time of the Agreement. A later clause in the Agreement states that Duke Ellington confirms that Mills Music, Inc., American Academy of Music, Inc., and Gotham Music Service, Inc., or any of their predecessors in interest or any other affiliated companies of [EMI], not specifically mentioned, were and are now possessed of and are entitled to the original copyrights of the [relevant] musical compositions (Agreement, ¶5 [emphasis added]). This language indicates that the parties intended that the members of the Second Party were to be entities who own the copyright in the relevant musical compositions, rather than entities, who for any number of reasons, may be affiliated with the publisher. As the affiliated foreign subpublishers do not acquire a United States copyright to the relevant compositions, the parties likely would not have intended them to be members of the Second Party. The - 10 - - 11 - No. 156 role of the affiliated foreign subpublishers is simply to provide subpublication services in their respective countries. EMI still retains the copyright to the relevant musical compositions.