Madea Goes to Court (and Wins!)

By Matthew Belloni

Our latest THR column looks at Tyler Perry and Marshall, Texas. What does the creative force behind "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" and other films featuring the trash-talking grandma Madea have to do with a dustry town that's home to an annual Fire Ant Festival?

Perry recently found himself litigating a copyright infringement case in the notoriously plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction and his legal team lived to tell the story. Marshall is usually associated with patent cases, including Tivo's $73 million verdict against EchoStar over DVR technology in 2006, so it was interesting to us to see a plaintiff who lives in Dallas try to take advantage of the jurisdiction by filing her copyright claim more than 150 miles away in Marshall.

As you can read, the strategy didn't exactly work.