Kernochan Center for Law,
Media and the Arts

The Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts was established to contribute to a broader understanding of the legal aspects of creative works of authorship, including their dissemination and use.

Center faculty and staff are pursuing university-recommended policies and are not in the office; however, the Center remains reachable by email at [email protected].

Scholarship Opportunity: Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Writing Competition

The Entertainment Law Initiative fosters future careers in entertainment law by seeking out the nation’s top law students and giving them invaluable networking and educational opportunities. For the past 22 years, the program has included a legal writing competition that offers law students the chance to win up to $10,000 in tuition-based scholarships.

The ELI Writing Competition challenges students to identify, research and write an essay outlining a proposed solution on a compelling legal issue confronting the music industry. A nationwide panel of music law experts will judge the papers in a blind process to select a winner and two runners-up. This contest is open to Juris Doctorate (JD) and Master of Laws (LLM) candidates at U.S. law schools.  The submission deadline is January 4, 2021.  For more information, please visit the official website.

Annual Phil Cowan-Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship Writing Competition

The Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section (EASLS) offers a unique opportunity to law students to have their work published and receive a $2,500 scholarship.

Each scholarship candidate must write an original paper on any legal issue of current interest in the area of entertainment, arts, or sports law. You may submit any paper for the scholarship that you previously submitted for a school assignment. The paper should be 12 to 15 pages in length (including Bluebook form footnotes), double-spaced and submitted in Microsoft Word format. Papers longer than 15 pages total will not be considered. Each scholarship candidate will receive a complimentary membership in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Section through December 31, 2021.

The deadline is January 8, 2021.  The winner(s) will be announced and the scholarship(s) awarded during the Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law virtual meeting on January 26, 2021. For further information, please visit nysba.org/EASLWritingComp, or contact Dana Alamia at [email protected].

New Feature: Showcase

At the Kernochan Center, faculty and staff produce original scholarship in the field of intellectual property.  We involve our students in our research and we also strive to recognize their excellent scholarship in their own endeavors.  From time to time, we will highlight some of that scholarship on our website.  Please visit our Showcase to read the work our faculty and staff have selected.

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2020 Intellectual Property Prizes!

The Caroll G. Harper Prize, for graduating students who attain the highest standard in IP studies and writing: Rachel Horn and Erick Speckhard

The Michael D. Remer Award for a graduating student whose activities and achievements demonstrate an aptitude for IP law: Brandon Zamudio

The Andrew D. Fried Memorial Prize for the best student essay on IP law published in the Journal of Law & the Arts: Max I. Fiest, "Why a Data Disclosure Law Is (Likely) Unconstitutional."

This year's scheduled Manges Speaker, Karyn Temple, will join us in 2021.  We deeply regret the necessity of the cancelation of our public programming.

Read the Kernochan Center newsletter online!

Stories include coverage of our spring talks, and upcoming events!  Read it here now!

Annual Kernochan Center Symposium - October 4, 2019

The Kernochan Center's 2019 Annual Symposium, Exploring Copyrightability and Scope of Protection was an all-day event at Columbia Law School.  For the Symposium's schedule and video of panels and speakers, please click here.

Currently from the Kernochan Center:

Kernochan Center's Reply Comments to Copyright Office NOI regarding the Noncommercial Use of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings.

2018 Kernochan Center Symposium, Owning Personality: The Expanding Right of Publicity

News from the Kernochan Center:

May, 2020: Jane Ginsburg has begun work on a book of annotated primary sources about the Supreme Court's 1884 Burrow-Giles v. Sarony ("Oscar Wilde photo case") and copyright protection for photographs.

May 2, 2020: Jane Ginsburg gave an online mini-course at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy) on Platform and Search Engine Liability for Copyright Infringement in the US and EU.

February 25, 2020: Spring IP Speaker Series: Google v. Oracle, with Joseph Gratz (Drurie Tangri) and Steve Tepp (Sentinel Worldwide).

February 4, 2020: Spring IP Speaker Series: Copyright and Legal Annotation, with Shyam Balganesh (University of Pennsylvania Law School) and Joshua Johnson (Vinson & Elkins LLP).

January 28, 2020: Spring IP Speaker Series: Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act with Nancy Wolff (Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams and Sheppard LLC) and Jonathan Band (Jonathan Band PLLC).

November 12, 2019: Jane Ginsburg delivered the Distinguished Visitor in Intellectual Property Lecture at the National University of Singapore, titled "Fair Use in the United States: Transformed, Deformed, Reformed?" 

November 4, 2019: Fall IP Lunch Talk: Meet the Artist, with Jonathan Wolff.

October 25, 2019: Pippa Loengard spoke at the Art Law Litigation and Dispute Resolution conference on Negotiating Artists' Contracts for Installation Art Pieces.

October 24, 2019: Pippa Loengard addressed the New York City Bar Association panel on Hot Topics in Art Law.

October 21, 2019: Jane Ginsburg published, along with Luke Budiardjo, '18, the paper Authors and Machines, 34 BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL 343 (2019).

October 19, 2019: Fall IP Lunch Talk: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and the Art Market, with Angela Redai and Anne Bracegirdle.

October 15, 2019: Jack Browning, '13, Jocelyn Hanamirian, '12, and Natalie Russell, '12, spoke on the Kernochan Center's Young Alumni in IP panel.

October 4, 2019: The Kernochan Center hosted its Annual Symposium: Exploring Copyrightability and Scope of Protection.

July 1, 2019: June Besek selected as incoming Chair of the IPL Section of the ABA.

June 24-25, 2019: Jane Ginsburg took part in a conference on public international law and IP, sponsored by Humboldt University.

June 21-22, 2019: Jane Ginsburg participated in a conference in Berlin organized by the International Law Association to produce guidelines on intellectual property and private international law in transnational litigation.

May 23, 2019: Building a Responsible Art Market: The Kernochan Center co-hosted a conference on the latest regulatory developments affecting the art market and the practicalities of art transaction risk management.

May, 2019: Jane Ginsburg took part in the Columbia-Tokyo University exchange program, teaching four classes on US copyright law.

April 26, 2019: Jane Ginsburg participated on a panel with Judge Pierre Leval on fair use.

April 16, 2019: Spring IP Lunch Talk: Internet Service Provider Liability, with Michael Elkin, Winston & Strawn, who has litigated many cases involving ISP liability, and Andrew Bart, Jenner & Block.

April 15, 2019: Jane Ginsburg delivered "The History of Copyright," a guest lecture with Laura Moscati, Sapienza Università di Roma.

April 9, 2019: Spring IP Lunch Talk: Developments in Fair Use, with Robert Clarida (CLS 1993), Reitler, Kailas and Rosenblatt,  author of  The Copyright Deskbook and co-author of the regular copyright law column in the New York Law Journal, and Dale Cendali, Kirkland and Ellis, who has litigated many high-profile copyright cases.

March 22, 2019:  June Besek spoke on a Federalist Society Teleforum on the ALI’s Initiative to create a Copyright Restatement.

March 19, 2019:  June Besek spoke on a panel addressing “Fair Use in the Digital Environment” at USC Gould School of Law’s 2019 Intellectual Property Institute.

March 12, 2019: Spring IP Lunch Talk: Hyperlinking and Right of Public Display, with Nancy Wolff, Cowan DeBaets, Abrahams and Sheppard, who frequently represents photographers, and Joseph Gratz, Durie Tangri, who has represented Google in several cases, including Authors Guild v. Google.

February 7, 2019:  June Besek spoke on a panel at the Federal Bar Council’s 2019 Art Law and Litigation Conference on “What Is Art?  How Copyright Law and the Arts Community Each Answer an Age-Old Question.”

January 17, 2019: Pippa Loengard presented on the fiduciary duties of joint authors at the New York City Bar Association's Entertainment Law Committee meeting.

January 5, 2019: June Besek spoke on creative works that are not protected by copyright at the AALS Annual Meeting on a panel entitled "Art and Cultural Industries: What Role for Intellectual Property and Copyright Law?".

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