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New Media and Entertainment

Fish's new media and entertainment attorneys provide IP, business, and litigation services for companies and individuals who work with content and technology, including:

Producers of video games and other interactive entertainment platforms
Interactive entertainment developers and publishers
Social media websites
Content owners, developers, and distributors
Colleges and universities
Investors with an interest in new media and entertainment
Individuals and companies who work with film, television, music, publishing, and the arts

Our combination of legal and professional experience makes us uniquely qualified to serve companies in the new media and entertainment industries. We represent clients in a wide range of business matters; provide advice on IP protection and enforcement; and advise on compliance with law and regulations on defamation, privacy, sweepstakes, and other issues.

Fish keeps pace with the latest developments in new media. We actively work with new media clients to create new business models and new revenue models involving shared advertising and other sources. We have significant licensing experience: one of our attorneys drafted the first open-source license. We have developed leading-edge deals in interactive entertainment, the Internet, TV, and blogs, and we have a thorough understanding of how user-generated content is owned and shared. We also handle digital content issues in the areas of music, film, and publishing. Our practice is among the foremost in the country in dealing with digital rights management and other copy and access protection management systems. With our technical expertise, we can address issues related to digital distribution.

Reed Elsevier, Inc., et al v. Irvin Muchnick, et al
Fish represents two publishers in a class action copyright lawsuit by freelance writers against a group of database publishers. An $18 million dollar settlement was approved by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2005 after a lengthy fight over the rights to electronically published works. That settlement was reversed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals who ruled that the Copyright Act limited the jurisdiction of federal courts to actions for copyright infringement of registered works. The Supreme Court later reversed the ruling of the Second Circuit, holding that copyright registration was not required for the District Court to approve the class action settlement. The case was remanded back to the Second Circuit where it is currently pending.

Lucent Technologies Inc., et al. v. Gateway Inc., et al.
Fish successfully obtained affirmance of the district court’s ruling of noninfringement and lack of standing that set aside a $1.52 billion damage award (the largest patent infringement verdict in history) against client Microsoft. The patents at issue related to encoding and decoding of audio into the digital MP3 format. (Fed. Cir. docket nos: 2007-1546, -1580, 2008-1022. Cite: 2008 WL4349236.)

Certain Flash Memory Controllers, Drives, Memory Cards, and Media Players and Products Containing Same (337-TA-619)
Represented respondents Kingston Technology Company and Phison Electronics Corp. in a patent case involving flash memory devices. Final determination of no infringement.

Parallel Networks, LLC v. Netflix, Inc., et al.
Representing Netflix, Orbitz, and Priceline against alleged infringement of two patents relating to dynamic webpage creation.

Supernova v. CBS, Inc., et al
Fish successfully represented the original Supernova punk rock band in the Southern District of California against the television “reality” show Rock Star Supernova, which was threatening to crown a rock band to be formed on the show “Supernova.” Fish attorneys obtained a preliminary injunction forbidding the new band to call itself Supernova, which was granted only hours before the East Coast showing of the final episode in the Rock Star Supernova series.

Universal Image v. Mark Cuban, Yahoo!, et al.
Obtained summary judgment on behalf of Mark Cuban dismissing $3,000,000,000 claims for fraud; dissolved injunction requiring Yahoo! to shut down its website

TIG v. Dallas Basketball Ltd. - 129 S.W.3d 232 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2004)
Upheld summary judgment on appeal to the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Texas for insured professional basketball team in suit for the duty to defend against TCPA claims under CGL policy. Appellate victory caused the insurance industry to adopt a mandatory endorsement excluding such claims from future CGL policies.

Rodriguez v. Dallas Basketball Limited
Settled multiple class action litigations against Dallas Mavericks basketball team alleging $135M in damages for less than 1% of claims. Subsequently prevailed in claims against insurance company who were ordered to pay all costs of litigation and settlement with penalties and interest.

Shahin v. Time Warner Cable
Trial counsel for employer in discrimination and negligent hiring action filed by consumer over alleged acts of an employee. Obtained judgment in favor of employer after five week jury trial.

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