| Biography:
William M. Hart is a partner in the New York office of Proskauer Rose LLP who
concentrates in intellectual property litigation and transactional matters,
with a particular emphasis on copyright. His practice spans a wide spectrum
of industries, focusing primarily on entertainment and literary property matters.
He has represented clients in several leading cases including Demetriades
v. Kaufmann, which served as a catalyst for legislative reform in the copyright
protection of architectural works, and Cliffnotes v. Doubleday, a landmark
trademark parody case.
For a decade, Mr. Hart has been actively involved in almost all of the leading
"Internet content" cases including the Lerma, Netcom and other
cases for clients such as the Religious Technology Center, the MPAA, the BSA
and others. These cases established new law on such diverse issues as ISP infringement
liability, protocols for removal of infringing content (preceding the adoption
in Section 512 of the U.S. Copyright Act), extra-territorial jurisdiction, and
liability for "peer to peer" delivery systems. Mr. Hart was actively
involved in the recent "DVD hack" decision (Universal City Studios
v. Reimerdes), successfully applying the new anti-circumvention provisions
of the Copyright Act to a technology which enabled unauthorized users to decrypt
protected DVD movies and proliferate highly compressed copies on the Internet.
Mr. Hart's involvement in multinational copyright has afforded him considerable
depth in foreign copyright matters; he is often called upon in overseas copyright
litigations and in complex transactions involving copyright and new technologies.
He also has considerable transactional experience in the acquisition and sale of copyright assets and
has been principally involved in music publishing, film and other deals involving
large portfolios of valuable, well- recognized copyrights, including transactions
involving the rights of Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Jimmy Webb and
Rachmaninoff.
Mr. Hart is a past member of the Committee on Copyright & Literary Property
of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1989-1992) and of the
Federal Legislation Committee of the United States Trademark Association (1988-89).
He has long been a member of the United States Copyright Society.
A frequent lecturer, Mr. Hart has been a guest speaker for such groups as the
Practising Law Institute, the ABA and the United States Trademark Association;
has conducted a number of symposia at leading university law schools on copyright,
intellectual property litigation and licensing; and is the author of numerous
publications in these areas including the lead chapter in a new compendium on
art law. Mr. Hart currently teaches intellectual property law as an adjunct
professor at Brooklyn Law School.
Mr. Hart received his undergraduate degree from Carnegie-Mellon University
in 1977 and his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1981
where he was a member of the Law Review, the Executive Editor of The
Journal of Law and Commerce and a founder of the Volunteer Lawyers for the
Arts in Pittsburgh. Mr. Hart was awarded the Burton Fellowship in 1981 by Columbia
University Law School for post-graduate studies in copyright law.
|
