TVT TURNABOUT: SUER BECOMES THE SUE-EE

Thelen Reid & Priest, LLP, the New York law firm that represented Steve Gottlieb's TVT Records (officially Tee Vee Toons, Inc.) in actions against Napster, MP3.com, Musicmaker.com and others, is accusing the company of being a "deadbeat label" and has sued to get its outstanding invoices paid—an amount totaling nearly $2.6 million.

The complaint, filed Oct. 10 in New York, alleges that TVT breached its contract with TR&P, which it had retained to represent it in late 1998. The unpaid invoices date from May 2000 to Sept. 2001. During that time, TVT was involved in legal proceedings with a number of companies, including Metropolitan Entertainment and Sony Pictures, in addition to the more high-profile Napster and MP3.com cases, and TR&P says it sent TVT dozens of invoices for services rendered, none of which were objected to by the label.

However, TR&P says it hasn't seen a dime. Those who remember the before-time when MP3.com was a renegade upstart bent on bringing the business to its knees and not an online cog in the huge machinery of a multinational media conglomerate might recall that TVT's infringement suit against it ended in mistrial after an exasperated Judge Jed Rakoff learned that the oddly low $300,000 in damages awarded to TVT by the jury was the result of a clerical error. The damage amount should have been $3 million, according to reports. A new trial date has been set for November.

It is unclear at this point if TR&P will continue to represent TVT in the matter, since its lawyers will be busy suing TVT's pants off through the rest of the year.

Interestingly, a whopping $1.96 million in fees and expenses of the $2.6 million TR&P says it is owed was billed to TVT's ill-fated MP3.com suit. It's a safe bet that TVT expected to clear a little bit more than $300k for such an investment.

Though it cannot be confirmed as of this writing, sources say Gottlieb has offered to settle the case by starring in an infomercial for TR&P.