Practice Capabilities

For over a century, Loeb & Loeb has been recognized as having one of the premier entertainment practices in the world. The Loeb & Loeb Intellectual Property Litigation team builds upon that expertise. Our lawyers, from the most senior partners to our junior associates, combine expertise in such substantive areas as copyright and trademark law, rights of privacy and publicity and unfair competition, with extensive experience in film, music, television, theater, publishing and advertising. Sought out for this unique blend of industry background and substantive expertise, our IP litigators handle cases in virtually every corner of the United States.

In an intellectual property landscape that is constantly being reconfigured, we are at the forefront of counseling and litigating cases involving the latest in technological developments. While our traditional clientele includes media giants who own and create America’s most important cultural exports, we increasingly advise those companies whose technological advancements promise to put a new face on American media and entertainment.

However, intellectual property litigation is not merely about issues of industry-wide change and development. It is, and always has been, about individual rights and the protection of those rights. Consequently, our team litigates cases involving individual personal and property rights in all media and advertising and, through its practice in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, protects and defends the proprietary rights of Fortune 500 clients far from the media capitals in New York and Los Angeles. 

In the areas of advertising and promotions, we prosecute and defend claims of consumer fraud, misleading advertising and deceptive and unfair trade practices. We have represented advertisers in connection with claims asserted before the Federal Trade Commission, the various attorneys general, the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau and other industry and governmental regulatory agencies. 

Service Approach

We are both counselors and litigators to our clients. We combine our unmatched industry knowledge with legal expertise including experience in antitrust issues, particularly cutting-edge issues involving licensing of IP rights. The result is efficient and sophisticated representation. As proud as we are of our courtroom successes, we are equally proud of our ability to resolve matters outside of litigation. It is in this area, in which expertise with law and business merge, that we feel we can be most effective. 

• Secured an historic $5 million settlement for filmmaker Woody Allen in his right-to-privacy lawsuit against American Apparel, Inc., for misuse of his image. The settlement was the largest amount ever paid in the history of the New York statute (Woody Allen v. American Apparel, Inc.).
• Represented the creators of the television show Family Guy in a copyright suit brought against them by music publisher the Bourne Company, claiming that a song used in the television program was lifted from a song in their music catalog, the famous When You Wish Upon a Star from Disney’s Pinocchio. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a summary judgment in favor of the defendants which included Twentieth Century Fox, Cartoon Network and Seth MacFarlane.
• Won summary judgment for Anheuser-Busch, DDB Worldwide Communications Group and DDB Chicago in a copyright and trade dress infringement action brought by BattleBots and arising out of a television ad aired during the Super Bowl.
• Won summary judgment for MGM Pictures in Bradley Richlin, et al v. MGM Pictures Inc., dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims seeking a declaration that they owned an interest in the renewal term copyright in the motion picture The Pink Panther, and successfully defended judgment in appeal to the 9th Circuit.
• Defended BMG Music Publishing against a declaratory relief action by a karaoke product manufacturer involving the scope of compulsory licenses and the fair use doctrine, and obtained a dismissal with prejudice without leave to amend.
• Represented HarperCollins as co-plaintiff with the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate in a lawsuit in excess of $100 million against Lord of the Rings distributor New Line.
• Defended Paramount Pictures Corporation in a copyright infringement case in Los Angeles concerning the classic 1957 motion picture Funny Face, brought by the picture’s director, Stanley Donen, in connection with licensing footage from the picture.
• Represented Twentieth Century Fox in a copyright infringement case in Los Angeles in which the plaintiff claimed that the film Robots infringed its film, and that Fox improperly used the plaintiff’s idea.
• Defended Universal Music Group Distribution Corp. and obtained summary judgment in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York dismissing copyright infringement claims.
• Represented Marilyn Monroe LLC in securing an order in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles granting reconsideration of the previous summary judgment decision that had eliminated posthumous publicity rights.
• Represented the owner of the rights to Elvis Presley’s name and likeness in litigation commenced by the producer of a Broadway show titled “All Shook Up.”

Clients and Industries

We represent clients in numerous industries, including entertainment, advertising and promotions and technology, both nationally and internationally. Our clients include the following:

Leadership in Law

Loeb & Loeb’s IP and Entertainment Litigation Group received high praise in the annual Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, which ranks lawyers and law practices through interviews with clients and competitors. Chambers noted the group’s “prowess in TV, motion picture and music-related litigation.” The firm was recipient of the prestigious 2010 Chambers Award for Excellence in Media, which recognized both litigation and transactional achievements in this area.

In 2012 The National Law Journal named Loeb & Loeb to the Intellectual Property Hot List, which recognized the top 20 firms that excel in providing patent, copyright and trademark legal services. This distinction recognized Loeb & Loeb as an innovator in applying legal principles to fast-changing technology. In 2011, Loeb & Loeb was named “U.S. Trademark Contentious Firm of the Year – West” by Managing Intellectual Property magazine.

Our litigators are recognized leaders in the intellectual property community as well as in our clients’ industries. We are frequent lecturers, and many attorneys on our team regularly write for trade and industry publications and organizations, and are actively involved in the Copyright Society of the USA, the International Trademark Association and various state and local bar groups.