Michael Lovitz focuses his practice on copyrights, trademarks, unfair competition, trade secrets, copyright and trademark litigation, portfolio management, licensing and transactional matters for a broad range of domestic and international clients including apparel, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, healthcare, financial, toys, jewelry, media/publishing, video game producers, software, internet and technology companies, as well as comic book creators and publishers.
Michael's experience includes trademark portfolio management; foreign and domestic trademark availability clearance and prosecution, including ex-parte appeals to the TTAB and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; copyright prosecution; copyright and trademark enforcement; trademark, copyright, patent and know-how licensing agreement negotiation, drafting and counseling; negotiating trademark and copyright acquisitions and transfers; negotiating, drafting and counseling for technology, software, internet and new media clients, including terms/conditions of use agreements, privacy policies, and publishing, media rights and option agreements; trademark opposition and cancellation practice; litigation of trademark, unfair competition and copyright matters; domain name disputes; and client counseling, including establishing trademark use guidelines, policing of IP rights, IP audits and due diligence reviews.
A frequent instructor and lecturer on trademark, copyright, Internet, computer and entertainment law issues at various seminars, conventions and conferences, Michael has served as faculty for programming from the American Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Law Association, and the DuPont Intellectual Property CLE Seminar. He also serves on the IP Conference Planning Committee for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
Michael leads several sold-out programs each year on intellectual property law for companies, emerging and established artists at the annual San Diego Comic-Con International. This year marked the fifteenth consecutive year he has been invited to present his "Comic Book Law School," developed specifically for the San Diego event. Comic-Con is the largest gathering of its kind in the world and Michael's lecture series has received national press.
ADMISSIONS
State Bar of California
Pennsylvania Bar Association
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals Federal Circuit
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin
HONORS
Best Lawyers in America
California SuperLawyers for Intellectual Property
Who's Who Legal USA
AFFILIATIONS
International Trademark Association
Intellectual Property Owners Association
American Bar Association
Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association
Beverly Hills Bar Association
EDUCATION
J.D., Temple University School of Law
B.A., University of Pennsylvania
ARTICLES
"It's All Geek to Me," The Philadelphia Lawyer (Fall 2005)
"Let the Author Beware - A Look at Work Made for Hire in the 21st Century," Delaware Law Weekly (June 2, 2004)
"The Struggle for Captain America," The Philadelphia Lawyer (Summer 2003)
Surfing Near the Edge: Fair Use in Cyberspace," The Philadelphia Lawyer (Summer 2002)
"Cat and Mouse: Josie & the Pussycats Creator Challenges Copyright Ownership," The Philadelphia Lawyer (Summer 2001)
The Trademark and Copyright Book by Sirius Entertainment (2001)
"The Implications of Hyperlaw for Secondary Publishers," Newsletter of the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (February 1998)
"It's all Berned Up," Temple International & Com. L.J., Vol. 3, No.1, 1989
"The Supreme Court Recognizes Color By Itself Can Function As a Valid Trademark"