COPYRIGHT LITIGATION, LICENSING AND PROSECUTION
We have handled domestic and international IP matters and can help you solve your intellectual property issue. We also advise clients in transactions and settlements in pre-litigation disputes and litigation.
Our IP/copyright experience is primarily in entertainment, music, film, media and technology industries.
We are experience in defense of infringement claims and plaintiff’s claims against infringers–as well as claims of defendant insureds on behalf of defendants who were sued as copyright infringers. IP matters we have worked on include matters involving high profile IPs and legacy interests, including matters representing or adverse to:
[Confidential] Ad Agency Executives
Represent client executives in highly contested IP infringement lawsuit after replacing counsel, eventually resulting in a stricken $1.5 million adverse judgment and favorable settlement.
AEG / Goldenvoice
Work with client IP holder in intellectual property dispute adverse to AEG / Goldenvoice involving crown-jewel Coachella IPs.
Hewlett-Packard
Advise client IP holder adverse to HP in patent / intellectual property matter.
Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
Represent client adverse to CAA agent via their outside counsel in intellectual property licensing/infringement royalty dispute concerning licensed branded products involving a high-profile social media influencer.
Disney
Advised IP holder adverse to Disney in music copyright infringement matter.
Advised IP holder adverse to Disney in film/screenplay copyright infringement matter including complex chain of title and licensing issues.
Advised IP holder adverse to Disney in software patent matter.
Electronic Arts
Advised IP holder adverse to EA in copyright infringement matter.
Easton Bell / Schutt Sports
Represent IP holder and veteran patent attorney against infringer resolved in client’s favor.
Golden Eagle Insurance Company
Represent insured manufacturer against carrier in IP insurance coverage dispute (IP insurance bad faith) resolved in client’s favor, and defended client insured in underlying copyright infringement dispute through favorable settlement with carrier and in underlying case.
Advise a software client adverse to Google in software IP matter.
Netflix
Represented clients in entrenched litigation involving dispute involving and adverse to Netflix. Convinced Netflix litigation to assist my clients during the litigation.
Stanford University
Advise IP holder adverse to Stanford University in intellectual property matter and software transaction.
Transformers
Represent IP holder and executives in dispute involving Transformers licensed products.
Yogi Tea
Represented IP holder in international and domestic trademark matters and opposition and cancellation proceedings.
COPYRIGHTS
Copyrights are a form of intellectual property, often used to seek to protect original works of authorship. A copyright, at common law, vests when the work is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” Copyrights in the U.S. may also implicate issues of asserted enforcement via international treaties such as the Berne Convention. Copyrights have certain limitations; for example, abstract ideas are not protected by copyright. Copyrights generally include a “bundle of rights” which is generally a reference to Title 17 USC, Section 106, which sets forth the following rights:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
Many of these terms have special meanings and may apply differently to a given case. Categories of works include:
(1) literary works;
(2) musical works, including any accompanying words;
(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music;
(4) pantomimes and choreographic works;
(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
(7) sound recordings; and
(8) architectural works.