A Look Back at Loeb & Loeb’s 2023 IP/Entertainment CLE Conference in New York

Loeb & Loeb held its eighth annual New York City IP/Entertainment Law CLE Conference for the firm’s entertainment clients. More than 150 in-house lawyers from a variety of companies within the film, television, music, sports and media industries joined Loeb on Jan. 26 for a full day of CLE panels featuring a variety of industry topics and professionals. Held each year in New York and Los Angeles, the event is well-attended by counsel working at motion picture studios, television networks, music labels, sports agencies, podcast production studios and other media and entertainment companies. The firm's Los Angeles conference has been running since 2008.

The conference kicked off in the morning with a panel exploring business trends and legal risks around NFTs in the metaverse — including best practices when sublicensing and trademarking NFTs, and copyright, IP and enforcement issues — which featured Melanie Howard, chair of Loeb’s Intellectual Property Protection and Luxury Brands practices and deputy chair of the Advanced Media and Technology department, Advanced Media & Technology partner Nerissa Coyle McGinn and Web3 manager Gian Pastore.

The morning also included a roundtable discussion on music catalogue acquisitions with Barry Slotnick, chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property and Entertainment Litigation practice, and Finance partner Curt Bajak and other industry experts, followed by a panel on hot topics and recent trends in licensing name, image and likeness rights for NCAA college athletes with Loeb Advanced Media & Technology partner Douglas Masters and a sports law expert from a leading sports agency.

In the afternoon, a group of panelists that included Loeb Litigation partners Frank D’Angelo and Tal Dickstein examined recent cases in intellectual property and entertainment law, including recent cases involving the statute of limitations for copyright infringement actions, the Andy Warhol copyright fair use case pending before the Supreme Court, and a case involving copyright termination and the work for hire exception, among other matters. In a separate discussion, Anne Kennedy McGuire, chair of Loeb’s Podcast practice, and several other experts within the podcast industry shared their knowledge about the various types of blended revenue models in the podcast world.

The conference wrapped up with a final talk between Chris Carbone, co-chair of the Litigation practice, and Litigation partner Safia Hussain about the rules of ethics regarding when bending the truth crosses the line into falsehoods, followed by a cocktail reception.

Interested in learning more about the topics discussed during our IP/Entertainment CLE Conference? Take a look at the available resources below:

• Knowledge Center: IP/Entertainment Cases of Interest
• Brands and NFTs: Licensing and Contracting Considerations
• NFTs and IP: How to Exploit Your IP Without Getting Exploited
• Virtual Shoes and Vault NFTs: First Sale, Fair Use or First Impression?
• A Look Ahead: The Ever-Expanding Podcast Industry