Gloria C. Phares
Partner

212-336-2686 | 212-336-7978 fax |
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The focus of Gloria Phares's practice is intellectual property. In addition to counseling and licensing involving copyright (including software), the Internet, publishing, statutory personal privacy laws, publicity/privacy, trademark/trade dress and the First Amendment, Ms. Phares litigates in those areas. She handles intellectual property work for clients ranging from publishers and music recording companies to technology and Internet-based companies to tax-exempt organizations including cultural institutions and universities. Ms. Phares also focuses on appellate litigation, an outgrowth of seven years with the Appellate Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she briefed and argued nearly 50 cases throughout the country and helped prepare several merits cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Phares' pro bono activities include co-directing the firm's Volunteer of Legal Services partnership with Metropolitan Hospital in east Harlem. 

Representative Matters

Intellectual Property Counseling
Copyright issues relating to possible infringement, copyrightability, fair use, analysis of renewal rights, termination rights, music sampling, restoration of foreign copyright, extraterritorial infringement, contract/ license interpretation, use of copyrighted material in advertising, including competitive advertising; publicity and privacy issues; advice relating to adoption and registration and possible infringement of trademarks and trade dress (including for book covers and titles); pre-publication review; advice regarding idea theft.

Intellectual Property Licensing/Agreements
Negotiation and drafting of publishing agreements for both authors and publishers; software licensing and development agreements; escrow agreements; database and technology licensing; game licensing; music licensing; licensing rights for content on Internet sites; multimedia development agreements; trademark licenses; joint marketing and sponsorship agreements; character licensing; literary agency agreements; licensing publicity rights; agreements with performers for major televised sporting event.

Internet/Privacy
Website development and hosting agreements; e-commerce agreements; advice on web-specific topics, such as terms and conditions and privacy issues, including compliance with the EU directive and U.S. and state statutes; advice regarding use of copyrighted material; co-location agreements; compliance with various internet related statutes including, Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Stored Communications Act, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act; and advice in connection with privacy breaches. 

Library and Museum Counseling
Represent large New York libraries and museums in connection with:  copyright and publicity rights advice relating to exhibitions, acquisitions, and loan arrangements; preparation and review of deeds of gift and acquisition agreements for manuscript material, photographs, and drawings; drafting and reviewing publishing agreements for publications, including catalogs; negotiating a software development agreement for the creation of a public, online catalogue of the collection of three museum libraries; resolving disputes involving copyright issues. 

Corporate Transactions
Advice and intellectual property due diligence in connection with corporate sales and acquisitions (asset and stock transfers) in both publishing and high technology businesses.

Litigation: Copyright/Publishing
Represented American Society of Mechanical Engineers et al. on amicus curiae brief on petition for certiorari in Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc. v. Veeck, 539 U.S. 969 (2003); represented successful plaintiffs in Stevens v. Aeolian Press, Ltd., 2002 WL 31387224, 64 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1920 (S.D.N.Y. 2002) (following bench trial, court awarded plaintiffs statutory damages and attorneys' fees); represented corporate defendant in Grolier Inc. v. Dorling Kindersley Holdings plc, (N.Y. Sup. Ct.-- settled 1997) (dispute over the move of editors from one publisher to another); represented a defendant in Maljack Productions, Inc. v. Dalton, (C.D. Cal.-- settled 1995) (copyrightability of the panned and scanned version of a motion picture); represented defendant in Altshul v. Avon Products, Inc. (D.N.J.-- settled 1995) (alleged infringement of product idea; copyright preemption); represented defendant in Macmillan, Inc. v. William Collins Sons & Co. (S.D.N.Y.-- settled 1991) (U.S. publishing rights to C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia).

Trademark/Trade Dress
Represented plaintiff in Troublé v. The Wet Seal, Inc. 179 F.Supp. 2d 291 (S.D.N.Y. 2001) (motions in limine) (settled 2002); represented respondent in Merriam-Webster, Inc. v. Random House, Inc., 513 U.S. 1190 (1995) (cert. denied) (trade dress of dictionaries); represented plaintiff in Nike, Inc. v. Apex One, Inc. (D.N.J.-- settled 1992) (reverse passing off of one athletic shoe for another); represented defendant in American Cinema Editors v. National Cable Television Ass'n, 937 F.2d 1572 (Fed. Cir. 1991).

First Amendment
Represented petitioner in Lebron v. The National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak), 513 U.S. 374 (1995) (holding Amtrak a government entity for purposes of First Amendment challenge to advertising policy); represented author in Shoen v. Shoen, 5 F.3d 1289 (9th Cir. 1993) (qualified reporter’s privilege held to apply to book author); amicus curiae briefs on behalf of Jasper Johns et al. in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989) (state flag desecration statute held unconstitutional), and United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990)(federal flag desecration statute held unconstitutional); on behalf of Chuck Close et al. in City of New York v. Bery, 97 F.3d 689 (2d Cir. 1996) (visual and verbal expression held equally protected under First and Fourteenth Amendments; NYC peddlar’s ordinance held unconstitutional); and on behalf of Claes Oldenburg et al. in Finley v. National Endowment for the Arts , 524 U.S. 569 (1998) (re constitutionality of the "decency" provision in the NEA statute).