An innovative provider of sophisticated legal services in over 45 practice areas.
Intellectual Property
Copyrights
Weintraub’s copyright attorneys advise clients on a wide range of issues including copyright registration, assignment, licensing, and strategy. Our experienced attorneys also handle a broad scope of copyright litigation, from representing copyright owners whose works have been infringed to defending those accused of copyright infringement.
To that end, Weintraub copyright attorneys are intently involved in the complex issues surrounding computer software and the high-tech industry, including issues relating to the scope of copyright protection, enforcement, acquisition, and licensing. Weintraub has also represented and advised clients in licensing and litigation matters relating to copyright protection for a wide variety of commercial items such as toys, electronics, and educational materials.
Weintraub brings extensive experience protecting copyrighted works for the entertainment industry, including protecting literary works, television and film works, visual artwork, video games, sound recordings, and multimedia products. We represent clients from industries such as television, film, music, publishing, websites, video games, and software. The firm has assisted clients in all forms of media and copyrightable works, including digital content, audiovisual presentations, software, film, literature, images, photography, and recorded music and sounds.
We register copyrights, expedite applications, record documents, and perform title searches. We also draft and negotiate agreements involving copyrighted works, including joint-development agreements, licenses, assignments, rights clearance, and distribution agreements. We advise on copyrightability, fair use, infringement, ownership and title, notice, security interests, and foreign protection. We have extensive experience in social media and other on-line issues and guide our clients through constantly changing best practices in this field.
Our services include:
Preparing and negotiating licenses and transfers, including for software and entertainment content
Litigation of copyright infringement cases
Copyright registration and protection
Fair use, open source counseling, and other software related issues
Ownership and work-made-for-hire counseling
Derivative works, distribution, and public performance rights
In an August 22, 2023, article for The Information, Weintraub shareholder and IP attorney Scott Hervey provided guidance on what can be copyrighted under existing U.S. Copyright Office rulings when it comes to AI-generated material. Only the human-created portion of work containing AI-generated material can be copyrighted. – Scott Hervey…
Jo Dale Carothers was recently quoted in a Law360 article after a recent Precendential Opinion Panel decision for patent petitions for inter partes review (IPR) on whether copyright and ISBN are sufficient evidence for printed reference material as having been “publicly available”. Jo Dale speaks about the ruling stating, “I…
Weintraub is pleased to announce that Jo Dale Carothers has been recognized as a 2019 San Diego Super Lawyer and Eric Caligiuri as a 2019 Rising Star. Jo Dale Carothers is a shareholder and chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property group. An intellectual property litigator and registered patent attorney, Jo…
Weintraub is pleased to announce that Jo Dale Carothers has been recognized as a 2019 San Diego Super Lawyer and Eric Caligiuri as a 2019 Rising Star. Jo Dale Carothers is a shareholder and chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property group. An intellectual property litigator and registered patent attorney, Jo…
Download: WTWB Merger Press Release FINAL.pdf Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin Law Corporation and Waldron & Bragg, a professional corporation, have jointly announced the merger of their business law and litigation firms. The combined firm will be named Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin and have offices in Sacramento, Calif., San…
For a third year in a row, Weintraub Tobin is working to raise funds for cardiovascular diseases and stroke by partaking in the American Heart Association Heart Walk on Saturday, September 21 at William Land Park. Our attorneys and staff work hard during the summer months to gear up for…
OpenAI, Inc. develops artificial intelligence software involving large language models (“LLM”) known as ChatGPT. In 2023, several authors, including the comedian Sarah Silverman, filed putative class action lawsuits alleging various copyright infringement claims. On February 12, 2024, a District Court in the Northern District of California issued its Order and…
The Ninth Circuit recently addressed the issue of whether parties can contractually agree to shorten the statute of limitations period for bringing a copyright infringement claim. In an unpublished opinion in the case, Evox Productions, LLC v. Chrome Data Solutions, LP (filed Feb. 10, 2023), the Ninth Circuit held that…
In Jacobs et al v. The Journal Publishing Company et al, 1-21-cv-00690, District Judge Martha Vazquez of the District Court of New Mexico recently held Plaintiffs’ twenty-two-month delay in filing suit rebutted any presumption of irreparable harm for alleged copyright violations, and accordingly denied Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. In…
Most lawyers think very highly of themselves. Nothing delights a lawyer more than citing an obscure, usually non-English phrase and mansplaining in a patronizing fashion to anyone who isn’t familiar with the term. Using these terms is clearly what justifies an attorney’s high rate. Unfortunately, the meaning and use of…
California recently passed Senate Bill 617 which requires additional information to be provided in Cal-WARN Act notices issued on or after January 1, 2026. As a brief background, there are federal and state laws which discuss the issue of notice owed to employees before large layoffs. The Federal law is…
On October 6, 2025 California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 351,[1] which prohibits private equity groups and hedge funds from interfering with the professional judgement of physicians or dentists in making healthcare decisions and from exercising power over specified clinical activities. Summary of Specific Prohibitions The law,…
This is the third and final installment in our multi-part series exploring the key implications of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This follows parts 1 and 2 of this series which discussed the no tax on tips and overtime provisions, SALT deduction, PTET Credit, and the excise tax…
AB 932 proposes several amendments to Government Code section 53080 relating to sex or gender discrimination in community youth athletics programs. This bill was introduced by Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin, and is sponsored by the Davis Storm Girls Basketball Club. Government Code section 53080 currently prohibits cities, counties, and special…
One of the primary issues employers must navigate is determining how to pay their employees, and that process begins with correctly classifying them. Only a limited number of positions within any company, such as managers, executives, certain administrative personnel and professionals qualify as exempt from overtime and meal and rest…
In Hirdman v. Charter Communication (8/4/25) 113 Cal.App.5th 376, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was faced with the sole issue of determining the meaning of the phrase “exempt employees” as used in California Labor Code section 246(l)(3). Bradley Hirdman (“Hirdman”) previously worked as a sales representative and was classified…
This is part 2 of Weintraub’s series covering the major changes from the OBBBA. This follows our initial article where we discussed the no tax on tips and overtime provisions, the SALT deduction, and the PTET Credit. These provisions, as well as the topic of our article, were discussed in…