A judge in Los Angeles issued a ruling yesterday that the lawsuit filed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association against dick clark productions will go to trial later this month.

HFPA owns the Golden Globes; Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder‘s Red Zone investment fund owns a majority share of the obnoxiously lower-cased entertainment firm.

dcp has produced broadcasts of the awards show since 1983. The suit arose out of dcp’s deal with NBC last year to continue to air the show through 2018.

HFPA lawyers say dcp had no authorization to make that deal since the association, and not the production company, controlled the television rights. dcp, in turn, argues that its 1993 contract with HFPA gives it the right to negotiate with NBC for as long as that network airs the show.

Both sides had filed motions for summary judgment in their favor. But U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank rebuffed them yesterday and said she’ll let a jury decide who wins.

Fairbank set a trial date of Aug. 30. Variety reported recently that dcp intends to call former longtime teenager Dick Clark to the witness stand.

Clark sold the company that bears his name in 2002. In 2007, Red Zone and the theme park chain Six Flags jointly purchased dcp for $175 million. Snyder controlled Red Zone, a private equity fund, and at that time he was chairman of the board of Six Flags, a publicly traded company. Snyder’s Red Zone reportedly got 60 percent of dcp; Six Flags got a reported 40 percent.

Six Flags struggled throughout Snyder’s reign atop the company, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in 2009. Snyder was out of Six Flags when it emerged from bankruptcy court.

He retained control of dcp, however, and has hired a lot of the management team he had with him at Six Flags, including former Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro.

As a vestige of its time with Red Zone, Six Flags still owns a share of dcp.

Photo by Peter Dutton via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0