COPYRIGHT:

Copyrights are valuable assets and an integral part of most companies’ intellectual property portfolios. MWZB’s copyright practice meets the needs of musicians, artists, authors, software developers and businesses of all sizes across a broad range of industries. Our services encompass the full spectrum of clearance, registration, transactional and enforcement matters, including the following:

• Counseling clients about copyright fundamentals, and identifying and addressing copyright issues to prevent litigation.
• Conducting clearance searches, including copyright registration and assignment searches, character searches and title searches.
• Auditing of copyrighted portfolios to identify assets, assess risks and opportunities, and discover and police infringements.
• Formulating registration strategies, including for clients that generate large numbers of works, such as software developers, record labels and music publishers.
• Preparing and prosecuting applications for copyright registration before the United States Copyright Office, including Special Handling Requests.
• Pursuing requests for reconsideration of refusals to register copyrights.
• Preparing work-for-hire agreements, copyright assignments and advising on employment agreements as they pertain to copyright law.
• Exploiting the commercial value of copyrighted works and related merchandising rights, including the negotiation and preparation of license agreements.
• Sending of “cease and desist” letters and notifications of claimed copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
• Recordation and enforcement of registered copyrights with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent the importation of infringing works.
• Prosecuting, and defending against, complex copyright claims in the federal courts for a variety of clients ranging from individual artists to large companies.

In all facets of our practice, we are devoted to providing high quality, personalized services in a cost-effective manner.