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Date
Rule
801.2
Staff
Richard B. Smith, Esq.
Response/Comments
7/10/96 Advised writer that exclusive distribution agreement must contain no exclusive grant of any trademark, copyright or patent. If in the present situation no such exclusive grant accompanies the exclusive distribution grant, then no HSR filing is required. RB Smith

Question

(redacted)

July 9, 1996

Premerger Notification Office
Bureau of Competition
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 303
Washington, D.C. 20580

Re:

Dear Mr. Smith:

This letter confirms our telephone conversation of July 8, 1996, in which you advised that the sale of distribution rights to motion picture films is not a reportable event under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the Act) and that the Premerger Notification Office would not view the following transaction as a reportable event for purposes of the Act:

Company A, a producer and distributer of motion pictures, proposes to sell to Company B, a motion picture distributor, exclusive theatrical and home video distribution rights to As catalog of films for a consideration in excess of $15 million. Both A and B meet the size-of-person test of the Act.

We also understand that, unlike the sale of distribution rights, the sale of a distribution agreement is deemed by the Premerger Notification Office to be a reportable event.

Please call me at (redacted) your earliest convenience to confirm that the above accurately reflects our conversation.

Very truly yours,

(Redacted)

cc: (redacted)

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