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LSKS lawyers are regularly asked to provide counsel to our media clients in international contexts. Among other things, our attorneys have:
- supervised litigation of disputes in foreign courts,
- represented foreign nationals in United States courts,
- licensed intellectual property for international use, and
- provided advice and comment on the laws of foreign countries.
Among the most significant and complex legal issues to arise from globalization is that of jurisdiction for Internet publications, and LSKS attorneys have been involved in two of the most significant cases to address the issue. LSKS represented a coalition of American media organizations that submitted an amicus curiae brief in Dow Jones & Co. Inc. v. Gutnick, in which the High Court of Australia essentially held that Australian residents may sue for Internet defamation in Australian courts irrespective of where the publisher resides and its works are primarily distributed. That decision has been broadly criticized, and it was rejected as inapplicable in a Canadian Internet jurisdiction case, Bangoura v. The Washington Post, in which the Court of Appeal for Ontario relied on the expert opinion submitted on behalf of The Washington Post by LSKS attorney Lee Levine.
LSKS’s intellectual property practice has a significant international component as well. We regularly work with clients, both American and foreign nationals, to license content and trademarks for use around the globe. LSKS lawyers also have supervised the litigation of trademark disputes in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific Rim and the Americas.
Because of our expertise in representing the news media, entertainment companies, and other content providers in the United States, LSKS attorneys also are regularly asked to speak at conferences, write, teach, and provide other services to advance the cause of free expression around the globe. For example, in addition to the Bangoura case, LSKS partner Lee Levine has provided expert opinions on the American law of free expression in other Canadian courts and in the courts of Ireland. Other LSKS attorneys have provided advice and counsel on the laws affecting the press in Moldova, Latvia, Romania, Jamaica, Canada, Albania, Iraq, Kuwait, and other Persian Gulf countries. Most recently, two LSKS attorneys authored an article published by the Media Law Resource Center that examines the different approaches taken by British and American courts to balance the competing interests in privacy and free speech.
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