Cyrus Wadia

Partner
San Francisco Office
cwadia@cwclaw.com
415-765-6235
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Cyrus Wadia is chair of Cooper, White & Cooper's Intellectual Property and Music & Recording Industry Practice Groups.  He focuses his intellectual property practice on trademarks, copyrights, Internet-related transactions and litigation, and the music industry.  He is also an experienced commercial litigator with an emphasis on real property, telecommunications, and class action consumer litigation. 

EXPERIENCE

Intellectual Property

• Design and manage intellectual property protection and enforcement programs.
• Manage large portfolio of national and international trademarks and copyrights.
• Litigate U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, international and federal trademark and copyright infringement, trade secret, trade dress and unfair competition matters.  Successful resolution of trademark cases including home electronics manufacturers, providers of online yellow page directory services, textile manufacturers, product and inventory management software products, and international trademark litigation on behalf of Napa-based winery.
• Advise clients on brand protection, copyright and design issues in telecommunications, software, multimedia, electronics, online retail, and wine industries.
• Intellectual property licensing and enforcement, including domain name protection.
• Develop, maintain, and enforce Digital Millennium Copyright Act policies and procedures.
• Draft and negotiate technology, e-commerce, sales, and distribution agreements, non-competition and non-disclosure agreements, website terms and conditions, privacy, and acceptable use policies.
• Advise new media and technology clients on general business matters, data security and information privacy, and litigate defamation and right of publicity matters.
• Represent artists, writers, and designers in protecting their intellectual property, including home furnishing textile designers such as India Rose, and modern design store Design Public.

• Litigate federal and state court cases on behalf of intellectual property owners, product manufacturers, newspaper publishers, pharmaceutical companies, real estate investment trusts, property owners, telecommunications companies, and national gas and electric utilities. 

Music & Recording Industry

• Counsel musicians, record labels such as Chameleon Music, digital music store Fake Science, event producers, ISPs and content distributors.
• Negotiate licensing, distribution, television and production deals with major labels, advise major home-electronics manufacturer on copyright implications of time-shifting.
• Written articles for music-related publications such as Flavorpill, Earplug, San Francisco State University's Music/Recording Industry Bulletin, and has authored Cooper, White & Cooper's Music & Recording Industry Alerts since 2003.

Prior to joining Cooper in 2000, Mr. Wadia was an associate at Kazan, McClain in Oakland, California, where he began practicing in 1997.  In 1996, Mr. Wadia served as a judicial extern for California Supreme Court Associate Justice Joyce L. Kennard. 

• Mr. Wadia currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Performing Arts Workshop, a nonprofit arts education organization dedicated to helping children develop critical thinking, creative expression and basic learning skills through the arts. 
• Mr. Wadia volunteers as a panel attorney for California Lawyers for the Arts, a nonprofit organization that provides lawyer referrals, dispute resolution services, educational programs and publications to artists and arts organizations.

• YouTube Prevails in Viacom's $1 Billion Copyright Infringement Lawsuit (June 24, 2010)

• U.S. Launches the 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement (June 22, 2010)

• How to Notify Social Networking Websites About Your Claims of Copyright Infringement (June 20, 2010)

• How to Protect Against Trademark Infringement on Facebook (June 9, 2010)

• Copyright Application Sufficient Prerequisite for Filing Copyright Infringement Claim in Federal Court (May 29, 2010)

• FCC Unveils The National Broadband Plan (April 1, 2010)

• Alleged Online Defamation Not Protected by California’s anti-SLAPP Statute (March 16, 2010)

• U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Corporate Spending Limits in Political Candidate Elections (January 22, 2010)

• National Community Standard Applies to Regulating Obscene Speech Disseminated Via E-Mail (November 29, 2009)

• FTC Identity Theft Red Flag Rule Update (November 6, 2009)

• New York Federal District Court Rejects ASCAP's Request for Ringtone Royalties (October 16, 2009)

• FCC Launches Official Twitter Page and Blogband (September 18, 2009)

• FTC Urges FCC to Consider Competition and Consumer Protection in Development of National Broadband Plan (September 16, 2009)

• Federal Circuit Affirms That ".com" Does Not Make a Generic Trademark Distinctive (September 15, 2009)

• Federal Circuit Overrules Controversial Fraud on the Trademark Office Decision (September 14, 2009)

• TTAB Clarifies Likelihood of Confusion Between Wine and Restaurant Services (August 18, 2009)

• California Supreme Court Holds That Single Publication Rule Applies to Appropriation of Likeness Claims (August 18, 2009)

• ASCAP Sues Over Ringtone Royalties (July 6, 2009)

• Facebook Username Land Grab Begins Friday Night (June 1, 2009)

• Bill Clinton Loses Domain Name Battles (June 10, 2009)

• Trademarks 101 (May 4, 2009)

•  U.S. Supreme Court Upholds FCC's "Fleeting Expletives" Rule (April 29, 2009)

• Fender Guitars Denied Trademark Registrations (April 6, 2009)

• Google Back in Trial Court Over Keyword Advertising (April 6, 2009)

• DMCA Safe Harbor Protections Applied to ISP's Video Software (March 26, 2009)

• Online Behavioral Advertising: New FTC Report and Pending Litigation (March 22, 2009)

• Work Made for Hire Trap in Independent Contractor Agreements (February 20, 2009)

• Internet Music Royalty Rates Reduced (February 19, 2009)

• How to Stop Cybersquatters (February 16, 2009)

• FTC Continues Crackdown on Website Data Security Breaches (February 13, 2009)

• FTC Announces $1 Million COPPA Settlement (February 1, 2009)

• J.D., University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 1997
  • American Jurisprudence Award, Legal Writing & Research
  • Semifinalist, National Moot Court Competition
  • Sutherland Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition
• B.A., Political Science, University of California, San Diego, 1994
• B.A., History, University of California, San Diego, 1994

• State Bar of California
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California