Billboard Awards can use Michael Jackson hologram

Wandtv.com reports that a federal judge ruled Friday that the Billboard Music Awards can use a hologram of deceased pop icon Michael Jackson at this weekend’s show, rejecting efforts from tech companies seeking to block the digital performance.

Judge Kent Dawson said there wasn’t enough evidence to show the planned 3-D image would violate patents held by Hologram USA Inc. and Musion Das Hologram Ltd.

The companies own rights to technology known for digitally resurrecting deceased rapper Tupac Shakur at the 2012 Coachella music festival.

“The court’s decision is not surprising,” attorney Howard Weitzman, who represented Jackson’s estate and dick clark productions, wrote in an email. “The request to stop this extraordinary Michael Jackson event was ludicrous.”

Plans to use the hologram during the show Sunday emerged with the lawsuit, but they weren’t confirmed until the hearing Friday afternoon. Show producers had been promoting only a “history-making performance” at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena that would promote the singer’s latest posthumous album, “Xscape.”

Read more at http://www.wandtv.com/story/25538642/tech-companies-sue-over-michael-jackson-hologram