Barris Industries, Inc., Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant/appellee v. Worldvision Enterprises, Inc., Defendant-Counter-Claimant/appellant

Barris Industries, Inc. is the producer of the “Newlywed Game” television program. Worldvision Enterprises, Inc. is the exclusive distributor (with certain exceptions) of the program. This case involves a dispute over entitlement to statutory cable royalty fees which were due to the copyright owner of the Game as a result of secondary transmission of the Game by cable rebroadcast. Worldvision appeals from summary judgment which granted Barris the right to receive 100 percent of these fees. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

The parties entered into the contract in issue on September 19, 1977. Under the contract Worldvision agreed to act as an independent sales representative and exclusive distributor of the Game outside the geographically excluded markets of St. Louis, New York and Los Angeles (“excluded markets”). Worldvision’s right to distribute was defined in paragraph one as the right to license the game for television exhibition. “Television” was defined in the agreement to exclude various forms of transmission (“excluded television”). “CATV systems” were within the definition of excluded television. The term CATV includes cable television.

In…