Professional experience
Mark A. Fischer is a Senior Principal in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson P.C. His professional start in media was as a copy editor for the publisher Little, Brown while he was in high school. Today, he represents creative companies, universities, and people in the worlds of new media, technology, entertainment, publishing, and computers.

Additionally, Mr. Fischer has taught the Advanced Copyright course at Suffolk University Law School for many years. He has also been an Adjunct faculty member teaching the Entertainment Law and Intellectual Property courses at Berklee College of Music, Boston College Law School, Northeastern University School of Law, and New England School of Law.

Practice overview
Mr. Fischer’s practice emphasizes the law and business of music, motion pictures, electronic commerce, and new media endeavors such as blogs and user generated content. He focuses on transactions, arbitration, and litigation, especially those that involve the Internet, mobile devices, DVDs, interactive entertainment, gaming, other ways of linking entertainment and information with technology, as well as patent licensing in the software, biotechnology, and medical fields. His practice also involves managing large international trademark programs, international licensing, advertising review, celebrity endorsement deals, drafting the first open source software agreement (the GNU Emacs License for the Free Software Foundation), overseeing major corporate transactions, litigating the first moral rights lawsuit in Massachusetts, and successfully agenting musical groups to record labels. Over the years he has represented Oscar-winning documentary film makers, Grammy-winning record labels, best-selling authors, and other award-winning talent. He chairs the firm's Information Technology Steering Committee. Mr. Fischer is also Co-Chair of the Copyright Group, and Chair of the Licensing Subgroup.

Upcoming and recent presentations
Mr. Fischer has moderated a panel on social networking at the Digital Media Conference West in San Francisco on October 28, 2009. Mr. Fischer will present a copyright law update ("The Year in Copyright and New Media") to the Intellectual Property Section of the Dallas Bar Association on February 26, 2010. He participated in the "The Life of a Music Lawyer and Beyond" at Berklee College of Music on November 17, 2009.

Moderated the "What Changes Are Needed to Reform the Digital Copyright System?" panel at Digital Music Forum East, New York City (March 2009).

Presentation on "Copyright Remedies" at the Boston Patent Law Association, Boston (2009).

Presentation on "Practical Copyright Issues" at the University of Texas 2009 Technology Law Conference, Austin, Texas (May 2009).

Moderated the "Breaking Down Social Media: Opportunities & Challenges for Content Owners, Brands & Marketers" panel at Digital Media Wire's Digital Media Conference East (June 2009).

Webinar "Facebook, Twitter, Blogs & IP: Protect Your Rights In A Virtual World" for the National Constitution Center Conferences (July 2009).

For a complete list of Mr. Fischer’s presentations, please click here.

Selected recent publications
Co-author of Perle & Williams on Publishing Law" (3rd Edition), published by Aspen Law & Business.

Mr. Fischer maintains a summary of music and technology law called, "Revolutions All the Time."

Co-author, "Social networks: taming the wild," with Margaret Salley, Managing Partner (Volume 12, Issue 5).

Co-author, "Do Attorneys Follow Their Own Copyright Advice?," with P. Sennott, Law.com on January 22, 2007.

"The Power of the Click-Through Agreement" from "Licensing in the Boardroom," Intellectual Asset Management, August 2006, 47-48.

Bar admissions
Admitted to the bar in Massachusetts, the District of Massachusetts, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Additional information
Listed in The Best Lawyers in America in every edition since 1993. Named by IP Law & Business to its "The Best Lawyers" list in Entertainment Law from 2004-2008 for his expertise in Entertainment Law. Listed in Boston Magazine's October 2002 issue as one of "The Best Lawyers" and described as "a trailblazer in the field of new media." Selected to Super Lawyers Massachusetts 2004-2009. Received an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell.

He is featured in "Inside the Minds: Internet Lawyers," published by Aspatore Books.

Co-founded the Copyright Society of New England, is a former trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A.