LAS VEGAS — A federal judge ruled Friday that the Billboard Music Awards can use a hologram of Michael Jackson at Sunday’s show, rejecting efforts from tech companies to block the digital performance.
Judge Kent Dawson said there wasn’t enough evidence to show that the 3-D image would violate patents held by Hologram USA and Musion Das Hologram.
The companies own rights to technology that digitally resurrected rapper Tupac Shakur at the 2012 Coachella music festival.
Plans to use the hologram at the awards show Sunday emerged with the lawsuit but weren’t confirmed until the hearing Friday.
Producers had promoted only a “history-making performance” at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena to promote the singer’s posthumous album “Xscape.”
Plaintiff’s attorney Ryan Baker said his clients would continue the suit and “are confident that they will prevail.”