Intellectual Property Law

EFF Announces Intellectual Property Legal Team

By rebecca

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proud to announce its new lineup focusing on intellectual property issues: Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry; Senior Staff Attorney Abigail Phillips; and Staff Attorney Julie Samuels. EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl will also continue his dual role on EFF's Civil Liberties and IP teams.

Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry has been a staff attorney at EFF for more than five years, working on high-profile EFF cases including the Sony-BMG rootkit litigation and defending the Yes Men and other activists in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over a political parody. Corynne's practice focuses on fair use and free speech and includes both litigation and advocacy work, such as spearheading EFF's Takedown Hall of Shame campaign and providing public commentary on online copyright and trademark issues. Corynne is the author of "Who Owns Academic Work?: Battling for Control of Intellectual Property" (Harvard University Press, 2001).

Senior Staff Attorney Abigail Phillips recently joined EFF after more than five years at Yahoo!, where she was Senior Legal Director for copyright and advised product development teams such as Yahoo! Search, Flickr, and Yahoo! Video on a range of cyberlaw issues. At EFF, she focuses on copyright and online content matters and will play a central role in EFF's policy work. Prior to Yahoo!, Abigail practiced in the technology policy and IP litigation groups of Perkins Coie LLP in San Francisco. Her non-law experience includes work as an editor, designer, and programmer in new and traditional media areas, including as the first webmaster for the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Staff Attorney Julie Samuels focuses on patents as well as other intellectual property issues. Currently Julie is overseeing EFF's Patent Busting Project and assisting on Lenz v. Universal, EFF's landmark case fighting a bogus claim of copyright infringement against a mother who posted a short YouTube video of her son dancing to a Prince song. Before joining EFF, Julie litigated IP and entertainment cases in Chicago at Loeb & Loeb and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Julie spent time as a legislative assistant at the Media Coalition in New York and as an assistant editor at the National Journal Group in D.C.

"EFF's IP work has been long respected by both the public and the courts for its a critical role in bringing balance to the law and for ensuring that technology empowers consumers, creators, and citizens," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Corynne, Abigail, Julie, and Kurt are the perfect team to bring EFF's work on behalf of users, activists, and innovators to the next level."

Contact:

Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org

Full post as published by Electronic Freedom Foundation - Deep Links on December 20, 2010 (boomark / email).