here to discuss how to tackle climate change. as long as we re still engaging with the issue, we can still make progress. justin rowlatt, bbc news, bonn. the family of the author whose article was the inspiration for the 1986 movie, top gun, has sued paramount pictures for copyright infringement over this year s blockbuster sequel. the lawsuit asks for unspecified damages, including profits from the new movie, top gun: maverick. but paramount says the claims are without merit and says we will defend ourselves vigorously . we can now speak to mitra ahouraian, who s a beverly hills entertainment attorney who represents actors and often deals with defamation issues. she s in los angeles. very good to have you with us. 548 million dollars globally in the first ten days, clearly
this year s blockbuster sequel. the lawsuit asks for unspecified damages, including profits from the new movie, top gun: maverick, which has broken box office records. but paramount says the claims are without merit. earlier we spoke to mitra ahouraian, who s a beverly hills entertainment attorney, in los angeles, who represents actors and often deals with defamation issues. she says the timing of this case is important. certainly, plenty of money to go around that is the perspective that the yonay estate is taking, of course. the us copyright act allows for authors to basically reacquire their rights after 35 years, and they ve sent a notice of termination to paramount so paramount arguably no longer have the license when they sent this notice of termination but the timing is going to be very important in this case because the notice of termination was sent in 2018
they did not even need to license the rights to the original article for the original movie, and only gave yonay suggested by credit, not a story by credit. so that is another interesting twist. right, it feels like we are at the sparring stage at the moment, they are both putting out their case here. drawing on all your experience and expertise, what is the result going to be? i mean, the smart thing would be a settlement. like you said originally, there is plenty of money to go around tom cruise alone is expected to make $100 million on this movie from his residuals he has a very nice deal. but i think that right now paramount really wants to double down as a matter of principle and really believes that they have a strong case, that they have the rights or that they did not need the rights, so they are sort of doubling down right now. mitra ahouraian.