North America - United States • Intellectual property
Morrison Foerster
Bolstered by its January 2023 combination with San Francisco IP boutique Durie Tangri LLP, the group at Morrison Foerster leverages the bench strength of its team and the backing of a network spanning Asia, Europe, and the Americas, to represent major corporates in consumer products, education, and tech (including OpenAI and MetaPlatforms) involved in high-stakes copyright prosecution and litigation. The practice is co-chaired by a team of experienced tech litigators across the nation: Bita Rahebi in Los Angeles, Mark Whitaker in Washington DC, Brian Nash in Austin, and Timothy Chen Saulsbury in San Francisco. Joseph Gratz, the lead litigator for OpenAI, and firm IP practice co-founder Michael Jacobs, are key names in handling emerging tech matters, with an emphasis on high-profile cases involving the application of generative artificial intelligence. In Los Angeles, Allyson Bennett specializes in representing e-commerce platforms, TV studios, and social networks. Rose Lee was promoted to partner at the same office in January 2024, and provides expertise in copyright, patent, and trade secret matters.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Superior IQ about both legal analysis and technology.’
‘Joe Gratz is one of a very small number of lawyers who are absolute experts on the intersection of copyright and new technology.’
Key clients
- OpenAI
- F5 Inc.
- Meta Platforms
- Redbubble
- ResearchGate
- Course Hero
- UpCodes
- Block, Inc.
Work highlights
- Represents OpenAI in a class action Digital Millennium Copyright Act suit about generative AI models, as well as two separate proposed copyright class actions cases brought by groups of authors, including comedian Sarah Silverman, regarding the inclusion of their books in datasets used to train ChatGPT to respond to text prompts.
- Represented F5 Inc. in a copyright infringement, fraud, and related legal theories filed by Lynwood Investments in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
- Represented Meta Platforms in a copyright class action brought by a photographer in the Northern District of California involving a feature on the Meta platform that allows users to embed Facebook content on other websites.
Lawyers
Leading partners
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Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Bita Rahebi, Mark Whitaker, Brian Nash, Tim Saulsbury