Why have Ural Dumplings been suing over money for two years? The strange death of the director of "Ural dumplings" in the midst of litigation. Million dollar scam
Context
MOSCOW, January 15 — RAPSI. The Moscow Arbitration Court again rejected the claim of Fest Hand Media LLC, owned by the former director of TO Ural Dumplings LLC Sergei Netievsky, to invalidate the agreement on the use of 73 episodes of TV shows filmed in 2012-2015, RIA URA reported on Tuesday. RU.
The case is being considered again, since the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District on June 26, 2018 sent this dispute for a new consideration. The cassation court overturned previously adopted judicial decisions in this case.
On March 16, 2018, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal invalidated the license agreement, under the terms of which Idea Fix Media LLC (the plaintiff is the founder of this structure with a 50% share of the authorized capital) granted Ural Pelmeni Production LLC (UPP) the right to use and process these archived episodes of the program.
As the applicant indicated, Idea Fix Media, which owns the exclusive rights to the original releases of the Ural Dumplings program, had no financial need to provide the Ural Dumplings Production company with the rights to the archive of the TV show for its processing in order to create a derivative work, the exclusive rights to which will further belong to the UPP.
According to the plaintiff, this transaction was made to the detriment of his interests, and the other party to the transaction should have known about it.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the plaintiff's arguments. The Idea Fix Media company and its general director Evgeny Orlov, bypassing the ban on granting an exclusive license, transferred the rights to process original programs in order to create an independent derivative work, which was then transferred to STS JSC, the court ruling noted.
In addition, the defendants did not provide the court with evidence of the economic validity of the disputed agreement, the arbitration emphasized.
Brand dispute and management change
In August 2017, the Court of Intellectual Rights (CIP) confirmed the refusal of the claim of TO Ural Dumplings LLC against Fest Hand Media to invalidate the agreement on the alienation of exclusive rights to the Ural Dumplings trademark.
The creative association appealed to the SIP the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court of March 13, 2017 and the decision of the Court of Appeal of May 12, 2017. Previously, the former general director of Uralskie Pelmeni Production LLC, Alexey Lyutikov, stated that the defendant illegally appropriated exclusive rights to the verbal trademark “Uralskie Pelmeni”; the disputed brand should belong to the team.
The court of first instance considered that the plaintiff did not indicate how invalidation of the contract would lead to the restoration of his rights and what rights and legitimate interests were violated by the contested transaction.
In October 2016, the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region satisfied the application of the director of TO Ural Dumplings LLC Netievsky regarding the illegality of his removal.
In support of the stated claims, the plaintiff indicated that on June 23, 2016, a general meeting of LLC participants was held, which confirmed some decisions of the team meeting of October 14, 2015. Netievsky’s powers as director were also terminated and a decision was made to appoint Sergei Isaev to this position.
Since, as Netievsky indicated in the statement, the decisions of the initial meeting dated October 14, 2015 are void, which was established by the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region dated July 6, 2016, the decisions of the general meeting of the LLC dated June 23, 2016 are also void. The court decision states that Netievsky was not notified in a timely manner about the date, place, time and agenda of the disputed meeting. In addition, he did not receive the minutes of the controversial meeting due to the fact that they were not sent to him.
Lyutikov previously reported that the decision to change the director was a simple management move that would increase the efficiency of the LLC. Sergey Isaev became the new general director of the creative association in October 2015. According to the constituent documents, all team members who, to one degree or another, own a stake in Ural Dumplings have the right to vote.
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The Moscow Arbitration Court again rejected the claim of Fest Hand Media LLC, owned by the former director of TO Ural Dumplings LLC Sergei Netievsky, to invalidate the agreement on the use of 73 episodes of television shows filmed in 2012-2015.
Until 2015, all income from the TV show was received by a company registered to director Sergei Netievsky. For the second season in a row, a profit is being made by a legal entity in which all the “dumplings” shared shares.
This week the film " Lucky chance" This is a funny comedy, the main characters of which are ordinary guys who won 43 million rubles and are running away from their loved ones so as not to share. The main roles of the film are the actors of the show “”, who know firsthand how to quarrel over money.
The creative team decided to remove director Netievsky after suspicions of “opacity” of income
The conflict in the team has been going on for a year and a half, since the fall of 2015. After the permanent director Sergei Netievsky (he once brought the team to STS).
He has been the director of Ural Dumplings since 1998, when the team was still playing in KVN. By the fall of 2015, he practically single-handedly organized the team’s tours - he was the general producer Idea Fix Media and founder First Hand Media. These legal entities, registered in Moscow, accompany the Ural Dumplings projects and are involved in the group’s touring activities.
At the same time, LLC “Creative Association Ural Dumplings” had 10 founders- that is, all the team members who stood at its origins. The change of director seemed simply like a technical decision.
However, already in the summer of 2016, it became clear that the team director and his former colleagues, classmates, and friends would not be able to part ways peacefully.
The fact that the financial flows controlled by his companies are “opaque,” observers recall.
Now the team is suing Sergei Netievsky (pictured in the middle) for their first performance
Numerous trials began. In February 2017, Sergei Netievsky sued Creative Association Ural Dumplings LLC for reimbursement of legal costs. In a lawsuit filed with the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region, Netievsky demanded more than 700 thousand rubles from the team.
Also, the ex-director of the team argued that he was illegally removed from his position without notifying him of the date of the meeting 30 days in advance. In October 2016, team directors. Then Netievsky was fired again, and he proved a violation of his rights. In the fall of 2016, he himself left the team. In February 2017, the Moscow Arbitration Court rejected a class action lawsuit by members of the Creative Association Ural Dumplings against First Hand Media, the company of Sergei Netievsky, over the rights to the Ural Dumplings trademark.
As a result, Netievsky “Ural dumplings”, asking for a symbolic sum of two rubles - a ruble for each. “We now have a tedious negotiation process, nothing new is happening,” says Netievsky.
Ural dumplings paid two rubles for their logo
Team director Evgeniy Orlov explains that in fact, the transfer of the mark from Netievsky was logical and stemmed from the history of ownership of the base mark. “There are two trademarks: orange and basic black and white. The basic one has always belonged to the team, since the days of KVN. Any new trademark - and the orange one is of this type - could only be registered on the basis of a black and white mark. And, in order to register the orange one, Netievsky transferred a black and white sign to his company First Hand Media. The team challenged the illegal acquisition of a black and white sign, which should never have left us,” explains Orlov. “The sign had to come back to us.” In the end, this is exactly what happened, and at the end of January 2017 the mark was registered with Rospatent.
According to Orlov, Netievsky earned during the period of ownership of the sign “not a fundamentally huge amount, several million rubles, this is now being clarified.”
The dispute over copyright for all performances of “Ural Dumplings” is dragging on. It's all about a rather subtle conflict - the rights belong to all the actors of the TV show. However, before 2015, Netievsky was one of them, but after 2015, not. Joint ownership of rights to different programs is part of the negotiations, as are funds, sites and shares in the project. Neither side wants any serious problems. Orlov says that Netievsky can “in principle do as he wants, but will it be correct from a human point of view and will it be legal?”
Former cavalry player, director of Ural Dumplings Alexei Lyutikov was found dead today in the Yekaterinburg Angelo Hotel. As a source told Life, the director of Ural Dumplings checked into the room on August 2 and since then has practically not left the hotel building. At the same time, dozens of alcohol bottles were found in the room.
According to Life's source, no signs of violent death were found on the man's body. At the same time, the investigation will check all possible versions of Lyutikov’s death. Including those that may be associated with the results of prolonged neurosis. The fact is that the man was a plaintiff for almost six months in a lawsuit for the right to use the Ural dumplings trademark.
The activities of the popular talk show are managed by two companies: "Ural Dumplings Production" and "Creative Association "Ural Dumplings". The co-owners of both companies are the show's actors - Andrei Rozhkov, Dmitry Sokolov, Sergei Isaev, Dmitry Brekotkin, Vyacheslav Myasnikov, Maxim Yaritsa and others Lyutikov worked as the general director of the Ural Dumplings Production company. Until the fall of 2015, the “creative association” was led by Sergei Netievsky, also a former “dumpling.”
Netievsky was removed from his post in 2015 as a result of a meeting of participants (according to the constituent documents, all team members who, to one degree or another, own a stake in the company have voting rights). At the same time, Netievsky continued to perform in numbers as an artist. Officially, Lyutikov then stated that Netievsky’s displacement was a simple management move in order to increase the efficiency of the show.
Netievsky, however, did not give up and in June 2016 challenged his own dismissal in court. The court invalidated the minutes of the meeting, as a result of which Netievsky was removed. As a result, Netievsky was reinstated as director.
The “dumplings” were sued not only for positions, but also for trademarks. In March 2016, Lyutikov, together with the actors, filed a lawsuit in the capital’s arbitration court against Netievsky’s company “Fest Hand Media”. At one time, the “dumplings” entered into an agreement with her to grant exclusive rights to the trademark “Ural dumplings”. However, in their lawsuit, the actors and Lyutikov asked to declare the contract invalid.
Lyutikov, after Netievsky’s departure, stated that he had appropriated exclusive rights to the verbal trademark “Ural Dumplings”: the brand, he pointed out, should belong to the team.
In July, the parties almost made peace. Netievsky's lawyer said that his client is ready to reach a settlement agreement. However, no final decision was made: Lyutikov’s lawyer said that it was necessary to consult with the client. As a result, the court postponed the case until October 2016. At the meeting in the fall, Lyutikov’s opinion as a plaintiff regarding the settlement agreement was supposed to be presented.
Members of the creative association “Ural Dumplings” became famous back in the 90s, when they performed in KVN. Following the victory in the 2000 season finale, fame came with money: the Ekaterinburg residents became stars of the STS television channel and began touring with their show throughout the country. On the wave of popularity, the team twice - in 2013 and 2015 - was included in the ranking of the richest showbiz artists, earning $2.8 million and $800 thousand, respectively.
The price of tickets for the Ural Dumplings concerts reached tens of thousands of rubles, and the new program was broadcast in federal prime time approximately once every two months. The quarrel looked all the more unexpected from the outside.
How is it that former friends only speak to each other through their representatives in courtrooms?
On October 21, 2015, information appeared that Sergei Netievsky had left his position as director of the show. At first, former Kaveen members did not speak out about the reasons for this decision, which only contributed to the spread of rumors: “the guys expressed no confidence in him,” “financial conflict,” “Netievsky has many projects on the side.”
Later that day, the general director of the Ural Dumplings Production company (producing the show), Alexey Lyutikov, expressed the official position of the team. As usual: “The decision to change the director was a simple management move that will increase efficiency.” The problem was Netievsky’s residence in Moscow; at some point this caused discomfort among his colleagues.
- Many rumors appeared, including that the reason for the resignation was a financial conflict. What happened?
Sergei felt cramped in Yekaterinburg. He himself has said more than once in interviews that he has become a Muscovite and that he is much more comfortable in the capital. In other words, Sergei ceased to be a “dumpling in a pan” and became a “fish in water.”
As for rumors about political or financial disputes, we do not even comment on this. We don't want to make excuses to anyone. We are honest with each other. We have no behind-the-scenes games, no kitchen secrets. It's funny for us to read about this in the media.
- Will Netievsky remain on the team?
No one was kicked out, no one was fired. Now Sergey will be working on his projects in Moscow, and we wish him success in this. If Sergei Netievsky wants to continue working in the team, then we will sit down with him and discuss everything.
Next year is the anniversary of KVN, followed by the anniversary of Alexander Vasilyevich Maslyakov. We will be happy to invite both Sergei Svetlakov and Sergei Netievsky.
- Did you and other team members manage to maintain friendly relations with him?
Certainly. I think that this is such a feature of the Urals - we are kind, reasonable people. Normal, friendly relationships are important to us, because it’s easier to live this way. The main value is decency and good attitude towards each other, which we will always maintain as a team.
At the same time, Sergei Netievsky tried to launch the entertainment project “Show from the Air.” The co-author was Alexander Pushnoy, known for the scientific and entertainment program “Galileo”. It was planned that the program would be broadcast on STS.
In February 2016, the unofficial leader of the Ural Dumplings. “Netievsky went his own way... I won’t wash dirty linen in public. The situation here is too complicated. It hasn’t been fully resolved yet, so…” he said.
In the spring, two participants announced their interests outside the show: Vyacheslav Myasnikov collected his good songs into an album, and Yulia Mikhalkova wanted to go to the State Duma and. “I didn’t act naked. “I had a photo shoot in an information magazine,” this is how the prima of “Ural Dumplings” responded to the question about filming in Maxim.
As it turned out, many of the team’s legal issues were tied to Netievsky. To move away from his past life, Sergey Isaev came up with an idea to update the branding. The winner of the competition for the best logo was promised money.
As it turned out, Sergei Netievsky himself was against changing the status quo and did not agree with his dismissal. The showman felt that he had been improperly notified. On June 1, the arbitration court began to examine labor relations and the form of their termination.
A month later, the court sided with the ex-director. During that meeting, Ural Dumplings lawyer Olga Yuryeva suggested that in fact Netievsky did not need a chair: “This process is a way to block and slow down the process that is now underway in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The essence of the matter is that we are challenging the transfer of a trademark from one company, where Netievsky owned 10%, to another, where he owns 100%.”
At the same time, Ural Dumplings filed a lawsuit to invalidate the decision to alienate Netievsky’s firm of exclusive rights to a verbal trademark worth 400 million rubles.
August 10 in a room at the Angelo Hotel. The team went underground for a month and did not speak to journalists.
In October, the 17th Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the lower court, confirming that the director of the creative association is Sergei Netievsky.
By December, the warring parties seemed to be. This outcome, in theory, suited everyone. Although Netievsky was de jure reinstated in his position, he did not have any real influence on the team, and the participants of the “Ural Dumplings” did not need a formal, but managerial superstructure.
In the last week of 2016, comedians at their meeting elected a new director: .
In May 2017, Ural Dumplings lost a trademark appeal. Lawyer Evgeniy Dedkov said that the right to the brand was already on the balance sheet of the plaintiff; his client Sergei Netievsky registered the mark for the group when he was in the status of director of Pelmeni. And for some reason comedians still continue to sue.
By the summer, a new lawsuit began between Netievsky and Ural Dumplings. Lyutikov's successor as general director, Evgeniy Orlov, said that from the sale of the show on STS and touring activities. To do this, he organized the Idea Fix Media company, which, in fact, became the owner of all Pelmeni programs.
“In general, there were always hints that something was unclean. He considers his actions lawful. Nine people are wrong, and he is right! He said: “This is a business. In Moscow, all producers do this.” That is, for some reason he imagined himself to be our producer. Although everyone in our team has an equal contribution to the common cause, and income should also be equal,” Dmitry Sokolov said then.
Sergei Netievsky, commenting on the accusations, expressed regret that his former comrades fell under bad influence. “A television product is created not only by actors and authors, it is created and promoted by the work of a well-coordinated team of a production company under the leadership of producers. I did a lot of work as a producer and really made the Ural Dumplings KVN team into a popular television show! Launching a TV project is a different level of responsibility and risk compared to actors and authors and, accordingly, it’s a different payment,” the producer explained his point of view.
On July 17, the court again sided with Netievsky - at that time, the claims of “Ural Dumplings” were that the ex-director sold the rights to the anniversary concert “We are 16 years old” to the STS TV channel. Because gladiolus! ”, without warning the team about it. According to Ural Dumplings, Sergei took the money from the deal for himself.
A new round of litigation started in the fall. Firstly, the Moscow Arbitration Court held a trial against Dmitry Sokolov, Sergei Kalugin, and Vyacheslav Myasnikov. Sergei Netievsky's company - LLC "Fest Hand Media"- asks to cancel contracts with its subsidiary. The court rejected the claim.
Secondly, other claims from LLC "Fest Hand Media" to Ural Pelmeni Production, where the plaintiff claims that Evgeny Orlov, as CEO of Idea Fix Media, caused damage to the company. He allegedly sold 73 archived concerts to Uralskie Pelmeni Production for 861 thousand rubles, after which Uralskie Pelmeni Production transferred the recordings to STS for 231.3 million rubles. The first instance rejected the claim, after which Fest Hand Media filed an appeal.
And the other day the Sverdlovsk Arbitration Court began considering another application from Ural Dumplings. Lawyers want money that he allegedly appropriated for himself while he held the position of director of the Unitary Enterprise. Netievsky spent these funds through his own individual entrepreneur, although there was no need for this, a representative of Pelmeni said, the plaintiff believes..
On February 28, the director of one of the legal entities - LLC "Creative Association "Ural Dumplings"- Natalya Tkacheva became, replacing Andrei Rozhkov. Previously, she was responsible for media communications.
To be continued.
The legal saga of the KVN team “Ural Dumplings” with former director Sergei Netievsky has been going on for many months now. On July 31, a regular meeting was held during which the claim against the ex-producer of comedians was rejected.
By the way, we were talking about a serious amount of 39 million rubles. That’s exactly how much Netievsky owes them, according to Ural Dumplings calculations. Sergei himself was able to prove in court that the above amount was spent on props, makeup and organizing the band’s concerts from 2012 to 2015.
Now Sergei is celebrating his long-awaited victory, but still agreed to find time and comment on the current situation.
“Today an appeal took place, and the second instance confirmed the absence of grounds for discussing my activities as a producer, thanks to which “Ural Dumplings” became a favorite show for millions of fans. In my opinion, they forgot what happened before 2009. And this is an eternal conflict when actors, with the advent of popularity, begin to believe that they have achieved everything themselves and without a producer. We were confident in our position, because there were no legal or moral grounds for claims against us! These are empty, hopeless attacks on me, fueled by representatives of “Pelmeni”, who make money by fanning the conflict with me,” Sergei told StarHit.
// Photo: Instagram
Netievsky does not deny that he has long been tired of the courts and considers all the accusations of his former colleagues against him to be absolutely groundless. In connection with new legal proceedings, Sergei suffered considerable financial losses, and now intends to recover them from Ural Dumplings. By the way, we are talking about costs amounting to hundreds of thousands of rubles.
“I will not become richer from this money, but my former colleagues should feel the absurdity of their attacks and demands on me and bear the costs if they decide to play this game! I hope they will understand the absurdity of the situation they created in order to save their director E.A. Orlov, who committed a number of illegal actions and withdrew assets of over 330 million rubles from the Idea Fix Media company,” Netievsky noted.
// Photo: Instagram
Previously, Sergei has repeatedly accused Evgeny Orlov of deception on an especially large scale, and now he intends to prove his case by any means.
Netievsky’s opponents have remained silent for now, but it is quite possible that they will decide on another appeal. Fans of “Ural Dumplings” have long been waiting for the legal squabbles to end and their idols to be able to return to full-time work without being distracted by proceedings with the former director.
The other day there were even rumors that one of the most successful KVN teams was breaking up, and the stars were rapidly leaving the team. However, comedian Yulia Mikhalkova hastened to dispel the rumors, noting that they still have many unrealized plans, which means there can be no talk of closing the project.
But Sergei Netievsky is sure that the endless and groundless accusations against him work against Ural Dumplings. “This latest lawsuit, like the previous lawsuits filed against me, is nothing more than an attempt to slander me, mislead the public and law enforcement agencies, create a negative background in the media, exhaust me with the courts and, thereby, try to evade responsibility. I am convinced that such empty and hopeless attacks against me rather work against the team and the image of the show,” said the ex-director of “Ural Dumplings”.
Together with his former teammates, Sergei has come a long way. At one time, a short film was even made about how the now extremely popular Ural Dumplings show was born. However, due to the protracted conflict, there seems to be no talk of reconciliation now.
