On Demand Video Available - Ray Dowd - Copyright Law: What The Practitioner Needs To Know

Copyright Law - CLE Now Available For Download

Copyright Law: What the Practitioner Needs to Know

$245.00

Live Broadcast on July 7, 2016

This course covers the fundamentals of what a lawyer needs to know to identify, register and make claims to copyrighted materials, how to identify and negotiate deals involving copyrightable subject matter, and how to deal with the U.S. Copyright Office with respect to licenses, assignments and pre-litigation practice. Attendees will learn practice procedures related to cease and desist letters and DMCA takedown notices. We will also discuss how to manage client expectations before pursuing a copyright claim in court and how to assess the all-important question of whether statutory damages or attorneys’ fees will be available. Related professional ethics are covered for each topic. Whether you are tackling basic copyright issues for the first time or are an advanced practitioner seeking fresh ways to look at the ever-changing legal landscape in light of recent case law developments, this practice-oriented course offers value for you.

This course is co-sponsored by the Federal Bar Association.

Key topics to be discussed:

• Principles of Copyright Law
• Registering, Supplementing and Correcting Copyright Claims
• The Logistics of the Copyright Lifecycle
• License Agreements: What the Dealmaker Needs to Know
• Work For Hire Agreements
• Legal Ethics: Investigation and Attorneys’ Fees
• Cease and Desist Letters and Takedown Notices
• Ownership or License Litigation
• Copyright Infringement
• Motions, Trials, Hearings, Settlements

Choose a format:

• On-Demand Video: Access CLE 24/7 via on-demand library and watch program anytime. Qualifies for self-study CLE credit. On-demand versions are made available 7 business days after the original recording date.
• All Access Pass: Before you buy, access this class and all other myLawCLE programs, over 120 new live classes every year, for only $69 dollars per month. Purchase the All Access Pass first. Click here for more information.

www.dunnington.com
 Copyright law, fine art and navigating the courts. Attorney and AuthorCopyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters Westlaw 2015-2016) by Raymond J. Dowd
 

Dunnington Partner & Copyright Litigation Handbook Author Raymond J. Dowd To Speak At Federal Litigation Conference In Washington DC

The Federal Bar Association's Federal Litigation Section is holding its annual Federal Litigation Conference in Washington D.C. starting tomorrow with a cocktail party hosted by Chip Molster at  Winston & Strawn.  This has been billed as the federal litigation networking event of the year and I am certainly looking forward to it.

If you are not yet a member of the FBA's Federal Litigation Section, now would be a great time to join.   Thanks to Chair Rob Kohn of the Kohn Law Group in Los Angeles and Vice Chair John McCarthy a New York partner of Smith Gambrell & Russell for all of the great work and vision in putting this event together.

The event has a superstar lineup of judges and attorneys from around the country. SCOTUS Blog Co-Founder Tom Goldstein's presentation will surely be a highlight.

I am bolding and highlighting the panel that I will be on so that it does not get lost in the shuffle of luminaries and dignitaries (and because we have to compete with the Supreme Court!), so if any IP practitioners or litigators with an interest in intellectual property litigation can make it, we would all enjoy meeting you and networking.

1:15-2:05 p.m.

CLE 3B - IP: Cease and Desist Letters: Ethics & Practice Raymond J. Dowd, Esq., Partner, Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP; author of Copyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters 2014-2015) John G. Froemming, Esq., Partner, Jones Day Matthew T. Salzmann, Esq., Associate, Arnold &Porter LLP Moderator: Hon. Lisa Margaret Smith, U.S. Magistrate Judge, Southern District of New York

The full schedule below!  To register www.fedbar.org.

5:30-7:00 p.m.	Welcome Reception at Winston & Strawn LLP 1700 K Street, N.W. (Rooftop/12th floor) Washington, D.C. 20006
OCTOBER 27, 2015 - FHI 360 Conference Center
8:30-9:00 a.m.	Registration and Networking Continental Breakfast
9:00-10:20 a.m.	CLE 1 - Cyber Security & Data Breach Grey Burkhart, Esq., Principal, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Jeffrey T. Cox, Esq., Partner, Faruki Ireland & Cox Kevin Minsky, Esq., Associate General Counsel, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Michael Woods, Esq., Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Verizon Moderator: Charles B. Molster, III, Esq., Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP
10:30-Noon	CLE 2 - New "Magic Tricks" for Federal Practice John McCarthy, Esq. Partner, Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP; Vice Chair of the FBA's Federal Litigation Section  Hon. Loretta A. Preska, Chief U.S. District Judge, Southern District of New York Hon. Gerald E. Rosen, Chief U.S. District Judge, Eastern District of Michigan; co-author of Federal Civil Trials and Evidence (Rutter Group) Hon. Suzanne H. Segal, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge, Central District of California Moderator: James M. Wagstaffe, Esq., Partner and co-founder, Kerr & Wagstaffe; Faculty Member of the Orientation Seminar for Newly Appointed Judges ("Baby Judges School") of the Federal Judiciary Center; principal author of Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial (Rutter Group)
Noon-1:00 p.m.	Luncheon with Keynote Speaker Thomas C. Goldstein, Esq., Partner, Goldstein & Russell P.C.; co-founder of SCOTUS-blog.com
1:15-2:05 p.m.	CLE 3A - Supreme Court Preview: Experts Discuss the Term's Top Cases Michael A. Carvin, Esq., Partner, Jones Day Thomas H. Dupree Jr., Esq., Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP Elizabeth Wydra, Esq., Chief Counsel, Constitutional Accountability Center Moderator: Steffen N. Johnson, Esq., Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP
1:15-2:05 p.m.	CLE 3B - IP: Cease and Desist Letters: Ethics & Practice Raymond J. Dowd, Esq., Partner, Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP; author of Copyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters 2014-2015) John G. Froemming, Esq., Partner, Jones Day Matthew T. Salzmann, Esq., Associate, Arnold & Porter LLP Moderator: Hon. Lisa Margaret Smith, U.S. Magistrate Judge, Southern District of New York
2:10-3:00 p.m.	CLE 4 - In-House Hot Topics: Key Advice From the Experts - Yeats, Alice, Cyber and More Joseph Clark, Esq., Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Investigations, Hewlett-Packard Neuman Leverett, Esq., Senior Corporate Counsel, Compliance, Tyco International Rachel V. Rose, JD, MBA, Principal, Rachel V. Rose Attorney at Law, PPLC; Chair of the FBA's In-House Counsel Division Timothy Wilson, Esq., Senior Intellectual Property Counsel, SAS Institute Inc. Moderator: Karla Palmer, Esq., Director, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C.
3:15-4:10 p.m.	CLE 5 - Obtaining and Using Electronic & Social Media Evidence Mark H. Churchill, Esq., Partner, McDermott Will & Emery Daniel D. Mauler, Esq., Partner, Redman, Peyton, & Braswell LLP Mark J. McLaughlin, Computer Forensics International Mark K. Vincent, Esq., U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Utah; FBA President Moderator: Charles B. Molster, III, Esq., Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP
4:15-5:15 p.m.	CLE 6 - Wisdom From the Bench Hon. Gerald E. Rosen, Chief U.S. District Judge, Eastern District of Michigan; co-author of Federal Civil Trials and Evidence (Rutter Group) Hon. Suzanne H. Segal, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge, Central District of California Hon. Lisa Margaret Smith, U.S. Magistrate Judge, Southern District of New York  Moderator: Robert E. Kohn, Esq., Principal, Kohn Law Group Inc.; Chair of the FBA's Federal Litigation Section
5:15 p.m.	Networking Cocktail Reception
*Agenda, CLE session and speaker information is tentative and subject to change
OCTOBER 28, 2015
11:00 a.m.	Golf Tournament & Reception at Army Navy Country Club 1700 Army Navy Drive Arlington, VA 22202 *If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Chip Molster at CMolster@winston.com or George Kostel at GKostel@Polsinelli.com

 www.dunnington.com
 Copyright law, fine art and navigating the courts. All practice, no theory.Copyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters Westlaw 2014-2015) by Raymond J. Dowd
 

Cease and Desist Letters in Copyright Litigation CLE October 17

The West LegalEdcenter invites you to attend the CLE on   Cease and Desist Letters in Copyright Litigation: Pitfalls for Practitioners   By Raymond J. Dowd October 17, 2012 at 1 pm

 

Via live online format, or accessible up to 180 days after the event.   http://westlegaledcenter.com/program_guide/course_detail.jsf?courseId=100000784     Gain one CLE Credit in 33 states for the event   Price per person: $195 However, due to this special event, use the code RAYDOWD2 To get 25% off the market price for each program!   The program is designed for any practitioners involved in sending cease and desist letters related to any conduct including breach of contract, nuisance, trademark, copyright, domain name, patent and other disputes whether related to intellectual property or not.

Raymond J. Dowd is a partner of Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP in New York City, and author of The Copyright Litigation Handbook.

 

The situation: a client wants a quick and dirty letter but does not want to pay much for it or think too hard on it. Is a cease and desist letter a recipe for a cost-effective settlement? Or will it snowball into a professional embarrassment, with the client getting hit with a lawsuit in an inconvenient forum? Dowd, a seasoned litigator, takes us through the ethical, tactical and strategic considerations and choices to be considered before a practitioner sends a cease and desist letter. What warnings should you give the client before proceeding? Would it be better to commence a local declaratory judgment action? Why or why not? What is the first-to-file rule and how can a practitioner try to craft a cease and desist letter to best balance the client’s objectives? What are the risks of suit in a foreign jurisdiction by the recipient of a letter and how does one get out of the pickle without getting sanctioned? Is your cease and desist letter going to be publicly mocked by well-organized bloggers who have systematically attacked overreaching by IP owners? Dowd’s Copyright Litigation Handbook is the first publication to deal seriously with the interplay of cease and desist letters and declaratory judgment actions, devoting attention to case law that rarely reaches the appellate level, but is of critical importance to the life of everyday practitioners. The New York Law Journal called Dowd’s Copyright Litigation Handbook “an indispensable guide and supplement to the ins and outs of copyright litigation…”. Join us for a lively session on a hot topic. For more information on Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 ed, please visit the Thomson Reuters Westlaw Store.

 www.dunnington.com
 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

Copyright Law: Boston Judge Holds Jury Award Unconstitutional in Music Dowloading Statutory Damages Case

In Sony BMG Music Entertainment (07cv11446-NG)(D. Mass July 9, 2010), Judge Nancy Gertner has written a 61-page decision that is an intellectual tour-de-force - concluding that a $675,000 statutory damages award against a student named Joel Tenenbaum who illegally downloaded music and then shared the songs on peer-to-peer file sharing services.  Judge Gertner's decision is linked below via Scrib'd.

The judge reduced the statutory damages award to $2,250 for each of the thirty infringed works.  This was a reduction of 90% from the jury's award of $22,500 per song.

The Tenenbaum case was debated in an IP Colloquium moderated by Prof Doug Lichtman, free CLE and audio here.   On this blog I rarely try to handicap the outcome of ongoing copyright cases.  All too often the casual observer doesn't have all of the operative facts.   But after listening to the excellent debate on the IP Colloquium I disagreed with Doug Lichtman's apparent conclusion that statutory damages clearly wouldn't be held unconstitutional based on Prof. Charlie Nesson's arguments.  My post on the Tenenbaum case here.

Both Doug Lichtman and Charlie Nesson, counsel for Tenenbaum hopped on the blog and commented on my post.   Check out the debate here.   I think that it's the most interesting discussion held on this blog since I started it.

I think that Doug Lichtman ended up being right about the analysis that would be applied to the case, you can see his thinking in his comments to my March 28, 2009 post (I had expressed sympathy for Nesson's arguments that excessive statutory damages were penal in nature).

The RIAA originally wrote a cease and desist letter to Tenenbaum asking for $3500.  Tenenbaum mailed them $500.  They rejected it.  RIAA sued and demanded $12,500.  He refused and this litigation ensued.

A key fact that all should know and that escapes many media posts is that the court found that Joel Tenenbaum first lied about his responsibility for file sharing (he tried to blame family members), then he claimed he'd deleted files, which he hadn't.   This is a key fact when we look at statutory damages, because wilfullness/innocence is a factor that is taken into account.   Courts routinely whack people who lie and who cause property owners to incur hassles and increased damages due to their untruthfulness.

So the basic first lesson to be taken from this and any other case is that if you want to be a martyr for a great cause and to vindicate some great principle through our courts, don't compound any initial error by lying about your actions.  Tenenbaum is not a pop hero, he should count his lucky stars and work out a settlement.  If Harvard wants another test case, find a fourteen year-old.   Tenenbaum should consider quitting school, getting a job and paying off the debt.  The Boston Globe interview (video posted below) shows that Tenenbaum shows little inclination to accept any responsibility for his actions, and as attorneys fees mount, his downside keeps getting worse.

Turning to Judge Gartner's decision -  it is a landmark work of scholarship in the area of punitive damages and the rules that should apply to copyright.  If you care about this area, read it. It also explains the relationship between remittitur and a judge's ability or obligation to address the constitutionality of a statutory damages award.  Her decision is groundbreaking, thoughtful, and accords with the thinking of the federal judge in Minnesota who vacated the jury's award in the Jammie Thomas case.  My post on that case here.

The case is at a point that the RIAA and Tenenbaum can each claim victory.  Charlie Nesson's arguments made during the IP Colloquium were vindicated, although not in the way he envisioned, and he has created law that is sensible, humane and realistic in the field of statutory damages and punitive damages in copyright cases.  Doug Lichtman's analytical approach was adopted by the court, although not quite the way he envisioned.

Settle it.

Related post:  2d Cir Rejects "Independent Economic Value" Test.





Boston Judge Holds Music Filesharing Damages Unconstitutional in Tenenbaum Case



 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook from West here  

Cease and Desist Letters: The Attack on Unicorn Meat

Would this image/entry at Thinkgeek confuse you?

Prof. Rebecca Tushnet reports here on a doozy of a cease and desist letter:  the Thinkgeek blog posted a non-existent April Fool's Day Unicorn Meat product and the National Pork Board responded with a cease and desist letter, details here.

Overreaching by TM and copyright owners really hurts owners who legitimately protect their brands and creative works.   Note to lawyers: leave the fools alone on April 1.

Practice Tip:  Chapter 6 of Copyright Litigation Handbook is titled "Cease and Desist Letters and Declaratory Judgment Actions".   I cover the many pitfalls involved in sending cease and desist letters and the ample case law showing that many lawyers, a surprising number in big law firms, tend not to think carefully about the potential consequences before sending these letters.  The "first to file" rule has some tricky exceptions.   A cease and desist letter may be met with a declaratory judgment action in an inconvenient jurisdiction. 28 USC 2201.  Try explaining that little surprise to your client.

 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook from West here