A
little more than a year ago, a representative of
Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. floated a
business proposition to Rick Roberts, the owner
of a one-story brick storefront a few steps from
Graceland.
The offer reportedly involved buying Roberts'
Elvis-themed gift shop Boulevard Souvenirs for
about $350,000 and assuming the 13 years
remaining on its lease.
Roberts, who developed his independent retail
operation at 3706 Elvis Presley Blvd. on land
that once was the site of a car repair shop,
turned down the request to sell. The store
currently is stocked from front to back with
trinkets such as old newspapers, T-shirts and
mugs, and it grosses about $1 million a year.
But EPE didn't stop there, Roberts' attorney
argues in a lawsuit filed earlier this year in
U.S. District Court for the Western District of
Tennessee. The corporation that officially
conducts and manages Elvis-related business
recently tweaked the licensing agreements it has
in place with merchandise vendors. CKX Inc. and
Robert F.X. Sillerman, which acquired an 85
percent ownership of Elvis Presley Enterprises
in February 2005, were not named in the lawsuit.
A change that was inserted now prohibits vendors
from selling their Elvis wares to unauthorized
retailers within a 5-mile radius of Graceland.
"Well, guess who's within a 5-mile radius of
Graceland?" said Randy Songstad, the attorney
representing Boulevard Souvenirs. "So the
vendors said, 'Hey, you can't do that, they do a
lot of money with us.'
"And (EPE) said, 'If you sell to them, we'll
take your license.' So the vendors called us up,
one by one, and said, 'It's killing us, but we
can't sell to you.'"
Earlier this month, one of the federal claims
filed on behalf of Boulevard Souvenirs - a claim
that EPE and vice president of international
licensing Carol Butler were conspiring to
eliminate all independently owned retail
competitors near Graceland - was dismissed.
Why the conspiracy claim wasn't successful is
that under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, a
conspiracy involving a business and an employee
can't technically be viewed as a conspiracy. A
business, in other words, can't conspire with
itself.
EPE did not respond to requests for an interview
and stated in a previous e-mailed response that
no comment would be forthcoming.
In a motion to dismiss the claims against EPE,
Glankler Brown PLLC attorney William Bradley Jr.
wrote that the effort was made to amend the
vendor license agreements partly in response to
an uptick in the proliferation of bootlegged
Elvis merchandise around Graceland.
"EPE does not want its 'genuine' merchandise
sold in a place where bootleg or unauthorized
merchandise is also sold," he wrote.
EPE has in place more than 200 license
agreements with licensees that either
manufacture or authorize the manufacture of
Elvis-themed collectibles and souvenirs.
Source: Memphis Daily News
Posted: 27th. October 2007