Navigating the
Creative Landscape
Practice Areas
Advertising & Marketing
Content Clearance
Copyright & Fair Use
Corporate Transactions & Governance
Film & TV
First Amendment & Newsgathering
Interactive Entertainment & Sports Media
Litigation
News Media & Publishing
Podcasts & Audio
Social Media
Technology & Data
Theater & Live Events
Trademark
Web3, A.I., Blockchain
Advertising & Marketing
Marketing to consumers has evolved significantly with the advent of technology and social media. Our attorneys leverage their expertise in advertising, media, technology, data, and intellectual property to help companies negotiate multi-platform deals; navigate advertising regulations and standards; and leverage social media presence.
- Media buys
- Custom/branded content and brand integration
- Native advertising
- Content licensing and review
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) compliance
- Talent agreements & influencer contracts
- Adtech relationships: data measurement and analytics
- Sponsorships, events and other brand activations
- Marketing services, including promotions, fulfillment, and public relations
- Affiliation marketing
- Compliance training for in-house and legal marketing departments
Content Clearance
We work with you from the development/newsgathering stage through to distribution. Our clearance team advocates for your first amendment rights and takes into account the practical realities of how responsibilities for content are allocated between creators and platforms.
- Script, documentary, podcast, libretto, manuscript & article review
- Defamation, privacy, right of publicity, newsgathering, sourcing advisory
- Fair use, trademark, and copyright analysis
- Third-party licenses and release negotiating and drafting
- Music, set decoration, and artwork clearance
- Insurance letters drafting
- Copyright & trademark registration
- Cross-border/international clearance
Copyright & Fair Use
A one stop shop for copyright strategy and protection. As clearance counsel and litigators, with a keen eye on the evolving landscape of technology and AI, we help you use copyright law to protect and capitalize on your entire intellectual property portfolio. Our team also advises on the exercise of statutory rights of termination and assists in renegotiating more favorable licenses.
- Comprehensive IP strategy and management
- Copyright registration and licensing
- Fair use analysis
- AI counsel and advisory
- Copyright termination and renegotiation
- Prosecution and defense of copyright infringement actions
Corporate Transactions & Governance
We provide transaction-specific and day-to-day corporate counsel to clients throughout various media sectors. We work directly with early stage and established businesses including, acquisition and exit strategies.
- Entity formation
- Corporate structuring
- Operating agreements
- Asset purchase transactions
- Business and legal affairs
- Stock and membership interest purchase transactions
- Corporate governance
- Industry commercial contracts
- Transaction due diligence
Film & TV
Whether you are a digital start-up, independent production company, or an established major/mini-major studio, network, platform or streamer, deals need to be negotiated efficiently, closed with momentum, and managed in a way that incentivizes creation of content.
- Business and legal affairs; production counsel
- Option and acquisition of underlying IP & shopping agreements
- Financing, development, distribution, and marketing agreements
- Above-the-line agreements (writer, director, producer, talent)
- Franchise, format & syndication agreements
- First look/slate deals
- Labor and guild guidance
- Wind-down and settlement agreements
- Content clearance
First Amendment & Newsgathering
Our lawyers take the words of the First Amendment to heart. We fight for reporters, and we stand unapologetically against censorship in all its forms. We are in the trenches with the clients we advise, helping to ensure their safety whether they are engaged in a domestic police ride-along or on location addressing violence and humanitarian crises around the globe.
- Public records battles at the state and federal levels
- Aggressive anti-SLAPP litigation to vindicate free speech rights against sham challenges
- Counseling with reporters and editors on reporting methods, hidden cameras, and undercover investigations
- Protection of confidential sources and source materials
- Defense of claims alleging intrusion upon seclusion, reporting of intimate private facts, and commercial appropriation of name and likeness
- Newsroom training in lawful investigative techniques
Interactive Entertainment & Sports Media
We help virtual reality developers, video game developers and publishers, and sports data analytics companies navigate the evolving legal, regulatory and intellectual property issues unique to their industries.
- Comprehensive intellectual property protection, enforcement and monetization strategies
- Content licensing, development, production, acquisition, and distribution deals
- Complex digital media and technology agreements
- Sports betting, online gaming transactions, and traditional sports and gaming properties
Litigation
We tackle a diverse range of legal disputes in media, entertainment, and intellectual property, alongside traditional commercial litigation. Our litigators have a breadth of experience handling disputes related to copyright, trademark, trade secrets, defamation, FOIA/access, reporter’s privilege, and contracts.
- Litigation avoidance counseling
- Pre-litigation correspondence
- Representation in federal and state courts
- Bench and jury trials
- Appellate representation
- Collaboration with subject matter experts and jury consultants
- Alternative dispute resolution
- Agency and industry body representation (TTAB, NAD)
News Media & Publishing
Klaris represents some of the nation’s most influential news media and publishing outlets, and has structures in place to undertake virtually immediate prepublication review and provide up-to-the-minute advice on the myriad legal questions that arise in a newsroom, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Prepublication and pre-broadcast review, on deadline, 24/7 as needed
- Collaborative counseling as to legal risks
- Dispute resolution and litigation avoidance
- Copyright and fair use review
- Public records and access assistance
- Social media and AI
- Agreements including author contracts, releases, and embargo and NDA clauses
- Customized training on topics including libel, copyright/fair use, and FTC guidelines
- Strategizing as to reporting and newsgathering techniques
Podcasts & Audio
There is no single “formula” to podcast deals: Who owns the master recordings, scripts and RSS feed? How are the financier’s risks balanced against the creator’s needs? Are existing and future revenue streams accounted for? Can the show be renewed? Who controls derivatives? With a constant eye on industry developments and best practices, our podcast & audio team supports all stages of development, distribution, and monetization.
- Business and legal affairs; production counsel
- Underlying IP acquisition and licensing
- Host deal negotiation and drafting (pilot or straight-to-series)
- Financing, production and co-production
- Independent contractor and work-for-hire agreements and deal memos
- Network, ad-sales and distribution agreements
- First look deals & film/TV adaptations
- Script/audio review & content clearance
Social Media
We help our clients leverage social media campaigns in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
- Social media platform terms of use
- IP issues related to repurposing content, including embedding
- Publicity/privacy rights
- Influencer marketing and endorsements
- Employee social media policies
Technology & Data
Our attorneys understand the value of website user data and assist clients with agreements involving access to, licensing, transfer and processing of data in compliance with evolving data protection laws and industry practices.
- Technology licensing and acquisition
- Web site and app development
- Infrastructure services and enterprise software
- SaaS and PaaS agreements
- NFT minting and marketplace technology
- Data-scraping/CFAA knowledge
Theater & Live Events
Our firm supports theater and live event producers and IP owners, advising on all aspects of development and production on Broadway, Off-Broadway, nationally and internationally. Our team consists of transactional attorneys uniquely suited to advise theater makers and event producers on all aspects of their productions.
- Business and legal affairs; production counsel
- Optioning, acquisition and protection of underlying works and stage properties
- Development and commercial stage financing
- Producer and co-producer arrangements
- Commissioning of new stage works
- Venue agreements
- Industry commercial contracts & below the line agreements
- Representation of individual artists (directors, choreographers, composers/ lyricists, playwrights)
Trademark
We handle trademark clearance, registration and maintenance, both within the United States and worldwide. Our team of trademark specialists guides individuals and companies through the legal complexities of both growing a business and protecting a brand.
- Comprehensive trademark search and clearance
- Strategic trademark filing
- Trademark application prosecution, addressing Office Actions and other refusals
- Global trademark portfolio & deadline management
- IP Audits, opposition and cancellation proceedings
- Active trademark policing
- Responding to infringement and unfair competition claims
- U.S. and foreign customs registrations
Web3, A.I., Blockchain
New technologies move from conception to widespread adoption in the blink of an eye. As our clients delve into VR/AR spaces and Web3, we move with them to provide comprehensive strategies and solutions. Our firm has long been at the forefront of analyzing and providing advice around blockchain and cryptocurrency, digital assets, and artificial intelligence.
- Technology licensing and acquisition
- IP and media issues arising from use of AI
- Implementation of blockchain technology
- Web3 transactions
- NFT minting and marketplace technology
- Data-scraping/CFAA
- Website ADA and wiretapping claim defense
- Domain name abuse, online scams and other legacy digital/Internet issues