Judge won't block planned performance of Michael Jackson hologram at Billboard Music Awards

Michael Jackson leans, points and sings, dances and struts during the opening performance of his 13-city U.S. tour in this 1988 file photo

LAS VEGAS — A federal judge in Las Vegas has denied a patent holder’s request to halt a performance by a Michael Jackson hologram scheduled for this weekend’s Billboard Music Awards.

Judge Kent Dawson issued a ruling Friday saying there wasn’t enough evidence to show the hologram would violate the company’s patents.

The planned hologram wasn’t shown in court, but it wasn’t clear until the hearing whether rumors of its use during Sunday’s show were true.

Lawyers for Michael Jackson’s estate and show producers argued their technology is different than the kind produced by plaintiffs Hologram USA and Musion Das Hologram Ltd.

The plaintiffs’ product digitally resurrected rapper Tupac Shakur in 2012 at the Coachella music festival. They argued theirs is the only known technology that can create such spectacles.