Kevin Butler: Vice President of Betrayal and Tears

[mike_intellivision]

HappySqurriel said:

mike_intellivision said:

HappySqurriel said:
For years I've wondered how these actor's contracts are written ...

If it was possible, and it likely isn't, when Sony stopped using an actor for one of their campaigns (if I was Nintendo or Microsoft) I would create a series of commercials to be run on youtube using these actors. Essentially have "Marcus" or "Kevin Butler" switch sides in a humorous way.

The character (Kevin Butler) would be owned by Sony. It could not be used by anyone else without Sony's permission.

The actor (Jerry Lambert) would have been a contract employee. His contract may have included a "non-compete" clause which would not prohibit him from doing anything for a competitor of Sony for a certain length of time afterwards -- or not.  Such a delay requirement would have lessoned the effectiveness of a "switching" commercial, if one could figuure out how to make it without being in copyright violations.

So Lambert went from Holiday Inn Express to Sony to Bridgestone Tires. He also does some acting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lambert_%28actor%29 and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1208801/

Mike from Morgantown

You wouldn't (necessarily) need to use the character though ...

I could be wrong but I was always under the impression that non-competition clauses were generally not enforceable; of course that could just be that (for a typical employee) the cost of going to court over a non-competition clause is more costly than the benefit it could possibly provide for the company.

Without using some reference to the former character, the "switching" commerical makes no sense.

As for the enforcability of "non-compete" clauses, I guess it would depend upon the contact and the courts.  And in most cases, the period of time (6 months) is shorter than the wait for a court date. So it becomes "de facto" enforcement, if not "de jure."