OCIPLA May 2024 Luncheon

Luck, Residue, Design?  A Post-Mortem Deconstruction of a Copyright Infringement Trial

Topic: Hargis v. Pacifica Senior Living Management LLC pending in the district court for the Central District of California

Description: Our May Luncheon speakers will be John Tehranian and Taylor Foss of One LLP.  They will discuss their recent landmark $6.3 million jury verdict in the copyright infringement case Hargis v. Pacifica Senior Living Management LLC pending in the district court for the Central District of California, where the jury found the senior care provider willfully infringed dozens of Hargis’ photographs.

Date: Thursday, May 16, 2024
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Location: Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine, 2607 Main St, Irvine, CA 92614

Registration:
Member: $55.00
Non-Member: $80.00
Student Member: $20.00

SPEAKERS

John Tehranian, Founding Partner, One LLP

John is a founding partner of One LLP.  His practice focuses on litigation, counseling and crisis management for clients in intellectual property, entertainment and constitutional matters.  John has handled high-profile disputes and transactions involving numerous legends from the worlds of music (Bootsy Collins, Don Henley, B.B. King, Madonna), film (Luis Bunuel, Harold Lloyd), fashion (Jeremy Scott), theater (Stephen Sondheim), photography (David LaChapelle, Annie Leibovitz), literature (John Fante, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Herbert, Jules Verne) and athletics (Oscar de la Hoya, Tony Parker, Dean Potter).  He has served as counsel in numerous published appellate decisions on copyright matters, including Mavrix v. LiveJournal, 873 F.3d 1045 (9^th Cir. 2017), Direct Technologies, LLC v. Electronic Arts, Inc., 836 F.3d 1059 (9^th Cir. 2016) and Mavrix Photo, Inc. v. Brand Technologies, Inc., 647 F.3d 1218 (9^th Cir. 2011).

Variety’s Legal Impact Report has recognized John as one of the world’s top 50 entertainment lawyers, Billboard Magazine has identified him as one of the top music lawyers in the business, and he has been repeatedly honored as a Southern California Super Lawyer.  He is also the recipient of the Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services from the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California.

A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, John began his legal career at O’Melveny & Myers LLP.  He is the author of dozens of articles and two books:  Whitewashed (New York University Press, 2009), which Publisher’s Weekly has lauded as a “consistently informative” work that “covers fresh legal and social territory,” and Infringement Nation (Oxford University Press, 2011), which the Harvard Law Review has praised for its “insightful critique of the copyright regime” and “convincing case for . . . reform.” His work has also appeared in such publications as the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, Northwestern University Law Review, Southern California Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, Iowa Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, George Washington Law Review, Hastings Law Journal, U.C. Davis Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review, University of Connecticut Law Review, BYU Law Review, Utah Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education. John’s work has been widely cited in congressional testimony, federal, state and foreign court decisions, and briefs before the United States Supreme Court in such landmark intellectual property cases as Warhol v. Goldsmith (2022), Google v. Oracle (2021), Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons (2013), Golan v. Holder (2012), and MGM v. Grokster (2005).

A frequent commentator for the broadcast and print media, he has appeared on such television programs as ABC’s Nightline and has been quoted as an expert on legal issues in such publications as The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter and Christian Science Monitor.  He has also spoken at numerous national and international conferences and venues, from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, South by Southwest (SXSW), Fox Entertainment Group and International Creative Management (ICM) to the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm), Humboldt University (Berlin), and Monash University (Melbourne).

As an academic, John serves as the Paul W. Wildman Chair and Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School.  He is also Affiliated Faculty at the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University. He has previously served as a tenured Professor of Law at the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, and as a Visiting Professor of Law at Loyola Law School. In 2023, he will be a Visiting Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law.

Taylor Foss, One LLP

Taylor C. Foss recently acted as lead trial counsel in One LLP’s groundbreaking $6.3 million jury verdict on behalf of architectural photographer Scott Hargis against Pacifica Senior Living Management LLC, who willfully infringed upon 42 of Hargis’ images.  One LLP worked in partnership with the world’s leading copyright licensing compliance service, ImageRights International, Inc., on the case on behalf of the Plaintiff, Scott Hargis, a widely recognized architectural photographer.  The victory came against Pacifica Senior Living, the thirteenth largest care provider in the United States, owns and operates multiple senior living facilities throughout the nation. Pacifica, despite being a large and sophisticated corporation with legal counsel and full knowledge of federal copyright law, continued to make new unauthorized uses long after it had been apprised of Hargis’ rights.  In this case, the jury deemed all 42 infringements as willful and assessed against Pacifica the absolute maximum statutory damages per infringement allowed by law: $150,000 per image, totaling $6.3 million.

With over 15 years of litigation experience, Mr. Foss is an experienced IP litigator and trademark lawyer. He focuses his practice on trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, rights of publicity, and general business litigation, utilizing his intellectual property expertise across a broad range of industries. Mr. Foss has litigated patent infringement cases related to technologies as varied as polarized sunglass lenses, encrypted computer networks, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices.

Mr. Foss has substantial experience with trademark enforcement in federal court and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Additionally, Mr. Foss prosecutes trademarks from applications to Office Actions to Opposition and Cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board.

Mr. Foss has frequently counseled clients on a range of IP issues, including providing due diligence reviews of patents and other intellectual property portfolios and advising on the IP aspects of corporate transactions.

Outside the courtroom, Mr. Foss frequently provides pre-litigation advice, enabling companies to predict, achieve, or avoid outcomes that might arise from business transactions involving intellectual property.

Mr. Foss practices primarily in U.S. Federal Court for the Central District of California and is available to act as local counsel for out-of-state litigants that need a guide to the Local Rules and practices.