As digital technology and the online environment transform the distribution and use of intellectual property, our Copyright & Trademark group is on the front lines in protecting and enforcing our clients’ most important creative assets. Our trial-tested team represents a wide range of clients, from entrepreneurs to major corporations, from playwrights to media giants, and from individual songwriters to the country’s largest performing rights organizations.
Brian Hermann and Justin Brass Co-Author Article for "Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy" Special Section
March 5, 2007 Full PDF
Bankruptcy partner Brian Hermann and associate Justin Brass' article, "Recording Artists, Beware!," appears in today's New York Law Journal. The article focuses on The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit's recent decision in Thompkins v. Lil'Joe Records, Inc., et al. and the implications of the ruling, which states that "through a bankruptcy of an artist's record company, the artist's copyrighted materials that were owned by the record company, could be sold by the record company free and clear of any obligation to pay the artist royalties for the buyer's ongoing exploitation of the copyrighted materials." Hermann and Brass go on to say that this decision, which provides flexibility and leverage for record labels against their artists, is clearly a win for the labels at the artists' expense.