Pagnanelli, Karin
Partner
Entertainment Litigation
Fashion Industry
Intellectual Property & Technology (Co-Chair)
Litigation
Legal Expertise
Civil litigation practice focused in federal courts with a concentration in intellectual property disputes involving copyright, piracy, trademark, defamation, and unfair competition.
Key Professional Accomplishments
* Successfully represented Sony Music in a trademark infringement lawsuit against the label and members of the British pop group One Direction brought by an American group with the same name.
* Represents Activision Blizzard in contract and fraud lawsuit brought by Axl Rose.
* Lead counsel in the successful representation of Take2 Interactive and Rockstar Games in a trademark infringement lawsuit alleging the company's game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" infringes upon the marks of a Los Angeles business establishment.
* Successful representation of Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) member companies in internet anti-piracy anti-circumvention cases against Aimster, Napster and Grokster and BitTorrent.
* Represent Sony in copyright infringement defense against CyberSitter, a Web software filtering vendor that filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the Chinese government, two Chinese software makers and seven major computer manufacturers alleging that the Chinese makers of a controversial Web filtering package the Chinese government had mandated to be installed on computers sold there illegally copied thousands of lines of code from CyberSitter's filtering software, and distributed more than 56 million copies of the infringing software to customers in China and to Chinese speakers worldwide.
* Represent AOL in a trademark infringement action against Advertise.com. In the suit, AOL claims that the domain name Advertise.com, formerly ABCsearch.com, could cause confusion amongst people who think that Advertise.com is affiliated with or endorsed by AOL's Advertising.com and Ad.com trademarks.
* Represent an industry leader in children's programming and products in a wide range of intellectual property disputes and licensing issues.
* Represent the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) regarding decisions by the Copyright Royalties Board, which determines how copyright owners are paid for cable, satellite and internet use.
* Represented NBC Universal as amicus curiae in action against YouTube.
* Lead counsel in multi-national effort that successfully shut down a website trafficking in ripping software that enabled cracking of anti-copying protection on DVDs.
* Lead counsel for Activision in copyright and trademark litigation.
* Successful representation of 23 RIAA members in a copyright infringement action against a CD manufacturing plant, resulting in a jury trial award of approximately $136 million in damages, the largest copyright verdict in U.S. history. Award upheld by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
* Lead counsel for major furniture designer and manufacturer in trademark litigation filed by Marlon Brando Estate and Clint Eastwood.
* Successful representation of a client in a patent infringement case against Oracle involving a system for transforming and exchanging data between distributed heterogeneous computer systems.
* Represented the largest theatrical motion picture exhibition circuit in the country in a dispute over the film rental percentage to be paid to an independent distributor for one of the largest grossing motion pictures of 2004.
* Successfully represented international nutritional supplement company in trademark litigation. Jury awarded over $3 million in damages.
* Lead litigation counsel representing the RIAA in internet copyright enforcement litigation in the Central District of California.
* Awarded summary judgment with respect to dispute over ownership of master recordings of the Allman Brothers Band.
* On behalf of RIAA, settled with various CD manufacturing plants in copyright infringement cases for millions of dollars.
* Represent various trademark owners in trademark litigation, both in enforcement and defense.
* Represent various patent owners in patent litigation, both in enforcement and defense.
Court Admissions
* California
* USDC, Central District of California
* USDC, Eastern District of California
* USDC, Northern District of California
* USDC, Southern District of California
* U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
* U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
* U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
* U.S. Supreme Court
Education
Southwestern Law School, J.D.; magna cum laude
California State University Long Beach, B.A.; with Distinction
