Contact: Mark Fefer, Marketing Communications, 206.757.8583 or markfefer@dwt.com
MAY 28, 2013 – Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is delighted to announce that its media practice group has received the 2013 Award for Excellence from Chambers USA. The awards were announced last Thursday night at a gala event in New York.
For each of several key practice areas, Chambers designated one law firm nationwide as the Award for Excellence winner. The honor is based on research carried out for the annual guide, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and reflects "notable achievements over the past 12 months including outstanding work, impressive strategic growth, and excellence in client service."
"The Chambers research process focusses on client feedback, and that makes this award especially gratifying," said Dave Baca, managing partner of Davis Wright Tremaine. "We deeply appreciate the opportunity to serve clients who play such an essential role in a free society."
DWT represents clients in media, intellectual property, and First Amendment litigation throughout the United States, routinely acting on behalf of the country's leading media companies.
Among the media group’s successes this past year was its prosecution of a copyright infringement claim on behalf of the Associated Press against Meltwater, a commercial electronic clipping service. In March, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a sweeping decision in favor of DWT’s client, rejecting the proposition that content published for free on the Internet can be scraped and commercially sold to Meltwater's customers under the guise of fair use.
Members of the DWT media team also successfully defended Comedy Central against a copyright infringement claim arising from a "South Park" parody of an Internet viral video. In affirming dismissal of the lawsuit, the Seventh Circuit held that the "South Park" parody was a fair use and instructed that the fair-use defense may be decided without discovery in appropriate cases—enabling content creators to avoid long and burdensome litigation.
In another group of cutting-edge cases, DWT has been defending Electronic Arts in three federal court appeals relating to its Madden NFL and NCAA Football video games. All three cases involve the important issue of how EA’s First Amendment rights should be balanced against athletes’ right of publicity or Lanham Act rights.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with nine offices and approximately 500 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.