Copyright

Copyright protection worldwide is a core practice of our Intellectual Property group. In addition to registering copyright claims and enforcing rights in various forms of media, our attorneys are pioneers in the significant new copyright challenges presented by the digital revolution.

We counsel clients in all sectors of their businesses, including advertising, Internet, social media, computer software, technology, virtual and augmented reality. Our experience also covers the more traditional copyright industries, such as book and music publishing, sound recordings, broadcasting and entertainment. We regularly advise several motion picture companies on copyright clearance issues. We also frequently give opinions on copyrightability, fair use, infringement, ownership and title, security interests, and international protection strategies. When our clients need or offer copyright licenses, we negotiate essential terms.

We are well-known for our copyright litigation expertise. In collaboration with our Litigation practice group, we enforce our clients' copyright interests and defend their legitimate rights to use the works of others in the courts and through alternative dispute resolution proceedings.

Our attorneys also are leaders in the copyright law community. Each year, we prepare the definitive review of U.S. copyright decisions published in the Journal of the Copyright Society. A Book Review by Robert W. Clarida about the 2022 edition of the Annual Review of Copyright Law, edited by Thomas Kjellberg with significant contributions by Joelle A. Milov and Dasha Chestukhin, was published in Publishing Research Quarterly (published by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature). Every two weeks, we co-author the Copyright Column published in the New York Law Journal. Several former employees, who remain valued colleagues, have gone on to become senior officials in the U.S. Copyright Office.

Internet and Online Communications

The Internet has created vast opportunities for both creators and users of copyrighted works. It is now possible for users around the world to have immediate access to virtually every literary, musical, and visual work ever published and to use those works in ways never dreamed of by their authors. The Internet has also created unprecedented risks to copyrights: instant access carries with it the possibility of instant copying and instant re-distribution, making every user a potential publisher of the creative works of others. Left unchecked, unauthorized copying and transmission could deter future creators from entrusting their works to the Internet, and the enormous potential of the medium could go unrealized. In the end, users could suffer far more from online copyright piracy than creators.

We have been in the forefront of the effort to protect both creators and users of copyrighted works on the Internet, representing large entertainment companies, advertisers, brands, libraries and museums, universities, journalists and publishers, new media creators, and individual artists. We have a thorough understanding of the issues and a unique perspective on the need for balance between the rights of creators and users in the online and Internet media.