Abraham Quintanilla sues Chris Perez to block TV series based on book

Abraham Quintanilla, Jr., the father of late singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, has filed a lawsuit against Chris Perez and Endemol Shine North America to stop production of a television series based on Perez’s best-selling book To Selena With Love.

According to Forbes.com, the suit was filed Friday in a Texas court to block production of the series, alleging that only Selena’s estate has the right to her name, image and “to author or authorize and commercially exploit a book, play, video, film, TV movie” about her life.

In November, Perez signed a deal with Endemol to adapt his book, published in 2012, into a television series. To Selena With Love gives Perez’s perspective of his romance with Selena, whom he was married to from 1992 until she was murdered in 1995, at the age of 23.

Forbes.com reports Perez is in violation of an Estate Properties Agreement he signed two months after her death in 1995, according to the suit. That agreement states that Quintanilla, Jr. is the exclusive rights holder of all “Entertainment Properties,” which includes contract, trademark and copyright rights, rights to income, rights of publicity, rights to name, voice, signature, and photographs, among other rights, “throughout the world in perpetuity without restriction.”

Perez accepted the terms of the Estate Properties Agreement and in doing so, “agreed to receive, among other things, twenty-five percent (25%) of the net profits derived from the exploitation of the Entertainment Properties,” according to the suit.