Arnold & Porter LLP has extensive experience representing the leading names in the entertainment industry, including US and international companies and individuals involved in film, television, music, cable industries, and publishing. We handle a wide variety of US and international corporate and securities transactions, antitrust issues, intellectual property matters, and litigation proceedings for broadcasters, movie studios, theatres, sports personalities and leagues, cable companies, recording companies, publishers, and other media entities.
Our attorneys regularly assist clients in protecting intellectual property content from misuse or unintended uses, whether protected by copyright, trademark, or patents. We played an integral role in the rapidly growing world of digital music, representing the record company plaintiffs in their landmark copyright infringement suit against Internet music service MP3.com. The case was an important precedent in the emergence of the Internet as a marketplace for legitimate business involving copyrighted works. In a related matter, we represented the Recording Industry Association of America in a US Department of Justice antitrust investigation into the electronic distribution of music over the Internet.
Our expanding Asia practice includes extensive transactional work for both US and Asian clients involved in major entertainment and location-based entertainment ventures. We have represented Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in the license of the MGM brand and certain intellectual properties for the development of location-based entertainment projects around the world; Oriental Land Corporation in connection with the license from The Walt Disney Company to build Tokyo Disneyland; and Universal Studios in connection with a joint venture formed to build and operate Universal Studios Japan.