My main areas of practice are intellectual property law and general business litigation. I have extensive experience in litigating copyright and trademark infringement, right of publicity, commercial contract, Cable Communications Act, lender liability and real property cases in the state and federal courts of California and New York. I also have an active practice counseling new businesses, including drafting and negotiating intellectual property license agreements, preparing and prosecuting trademark applications, and drafting and reviewing leases. I have represented clients ranging from individual artists to multinational corporations. My work has also included class actions, personal injury matters and probate disputes.
I have an unusual background for a lawyer. Eschewing the traditional educational path, in 1976 I received a Bachelor of Philosophy in interdisciplinary studies from Thomas Jefferson College, an experimental college in Michigan, where I pursued course work in, among other things, theater, poetry and classical mythology. I went to graduate school in theater directing at Brandeis University, and then transferred to California Institute of the Arts where I obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater directing in 1979. After graduate school, I taught theater, produced, directed and acted, and worked for a literary agent in New York City. After four years of working in theater and publishing, I attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York City where I served as the Articles Editor of the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. I graduated cum laude in 1986.
While in law school, I clerked at the Libel Defense Resource Center, a media-sponsored First Amendment think tank, and then with the New York-based international law firm of Coudert Brothers. After law school, I joined the New York office of Coudert Brothers, where I worked in the Media and Entertainment Litigation Department, representing television networks, newspapers, publishers and others in libel, intellectual property and international commercial litigation matters.
In 1989 I transferred to the San Francisco office of Coudert Brothers where I represented independent computer maintenance companies in anti-trust and intellectual property matters. In 1990, I left Coudert Brothers and associated with Stein, Lubin & Lerner (now Stein & Lubin) where I represented financial institutions, real estate developers, and businesses large and small in a wide range of litigation and general business matters.
While at Stein & Lubin I began to feel that my practice had become too narrowly focused in commercial law. I decided to look for opportunities to utilize my artistic background and intellectual property training to expand my professional sphere. I joined the referral panel of California Lawyers for the Arts and began giving talks on various arts related legal topics, such as licensing art and design, gallery contracts and publishing and literary agent contracts. As I began to develop a practice that balanced general commercial litigation and counseling with intellectual property law and arts and entertainment clients and issues, I started looking for a firm that would be more consistent with and supportive of my increasingly diverse skills and needs. In 1995, I left Stein & Lubin and joined with my current partners.
I have had the pleasure to be involved in many noteworthy cases throughout my career. Among my more recent matters, William Corman and I represented a class consisting of the former participants in a bankrupt retailer's profit-sharing plan and obtained a $36 million settlement on their behalf. In a widely publicized copyright, trademark and dilution case, I defended Kieron Dwyer, a comic book artist who was sued by Starbucks for creating a parody of the company's logo. I represented the children of Nobel Laureate physicist Richard Feynman in a copyright and right of publicity action against California Institute of Technology. M.J. Bogatin and I represented a New Mexico artist in a Visual Artists Rights Act case against a design firm and a major resort that had cut the artist's paintings in half. I regularly counsel the Huey P. Newton Foundation, Inc. in copyright, trademark and right of publicity matters, and recently represented the Foundation in granting rights to the producers of the Spike Lee film "A Huey Newton Story".
I strive to provide highly personalized legal services to my clients, with particular emphasis on common sense legal and business analysis and advice. I hope that you will feel free to contact me at agold@bcgattorneys.com to discuss your legal needs.
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