rodeo performer named Victor De Costa won a federal court judgment against CBS for trademark infringement, successfully arguing that he had created the Paladin character and the ideas used in the show, and that CBS had used them without permission. For example, at his rodeo appearances he always dressed in black, called himself the "Paladin", handed out hundreds of business cards featuring a chess piece logo along with the phrase "Have gun will travel", and carried a concealed derringer pistol. A year later, an appellate court overturned the lower court ruling on the basis that the plaintiff had failed to prove that likelihood of confusion had existed in the minds of the public—a necessary requirement for a suit over trademark infringement. In 1977, De Costa was awarded a federal trademark for the Paladin character. De Costa kept pursuing his legal options, and in 1991—more than 30 years after his first lawsuit was originally filed—a federal jury awarded DeCosta $3.5 million from Viacom International, by then a CBS subsidiary, which has distributed the show's reruns in defiance of De Costa's registered trademark, ordering Viacom to pay DeCosta $1 million for his loss and $2.5 million in punitive damages. Rhode Island District Judge Ernest C. Torres blocked the redistribution of the Paladin show by Viacom. De Costa died on 29 January 1993 at the age of 84, before he could receive the award. Filming locations Unlike many Westerns, entire episodes were filmed outdoors and away from the Old West Street set on Irving Street just below Melrose Avenue, the home of Filmaster television production company. Filmaster was located across the street from, later becoming part of, Paramount Studios' backlot. The area is now enclosed in the independent Kingsley Productions studio lot encompassing a city block. Beginning in season four, filming locations were often given in the closing credits. Locations included Bishop and Lone Pine, California; an area now known as Paladin Estates between Bend and Sisters, Oregon; and the Abbott Ranch near Prineville, Oregon. Music The program's opening was a four-note motif composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann. For the opening theme, Herrmann reused a short sequence he had previously composed for the 1951 movie On Dangerous Ground, starring Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino. The "Have Gun – Will Travel" theme (and fragments of incidental music also used in the television series) are featured in a chase scene across snowy fields; at