John Tehranian

John Tehranian is an experienced intellectual property and entertainment attorney representing prominent Hollywood, publishing, new media and technology clients.

He has handled a wide range of high-profile litigation, from the alleged infringement of Winston Churchill’s speeches and a decades-long ownership dispute over the one of Jimi Hendrix’s last concerts to fair use rights over Britney Spears photographs and remake rights to a Jules Verne classic.  His experience runs the gamut from high culture to pop culture, from the ancient (trademark claims over Sanskrit words) to the cutting edge (infringement claims over a leading file sharing application), across subject matter both traditional (film and television, music, literature, art and photography) and novel (internet metatags, source code and architecture).

Tehranian’s articles have appeared in such noted publications as the Yale Law Journal, U.C. Davis Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Journal of Intellectual Property Law, B.Y.U. Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Utah Law Review, University of Cincinnati Law Review, University of Hawai'i Law Review and Legal Times. He has spoken at numerous legal events, including at executive societies, bar associations, law schools and judicial conferences, has appeared on various television and radio programs, including ABC's Nightline, has been quoted as an expert on legal issues in such publications as The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter and Christian Science Monitor, and has served as an expert witness in numerous intellectual property and civil rights infringement suits.

As an academic, Tehranian currently serves as a tenured Professor of Law and Director of the Entertainment Law Program at Chapman University of Law, in Orange, California. He has previously served as a tenured Professor of Law at the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, and as a Visiting Professor of Law at Loyola Law School.

Education

Yale University , J.D.: Editor, Yale Law Journal; Senior Editor, Yale Law & Policy Review; Editor, Yale Journal of Law and Humanities.

Harvard University, A.B.: magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa; Palfrey Exhibition Prize for the most distinguished scholar in the senior class; John Harvard Scholarship and Detur Prize for academic performance of the highest distinction.

Representative Clients

● New Line Cinema
● Josh Agle (a.k.a. Shag)
● X17
● Western Digital Corp.
● Wall Street Reporter
● Mammoth Equities, LLC
● Zankou Chicken
● Meade Instruments Corp.
● Randall May International
● Shiva Rea
● Jim Uhls (Screenwriter, Fight Club)

Notable Entertainment & Intellectual Property Litigation

Copyright

● Representing a leading Hollywood photography agency in a high-profile copyright infringement and "hot news" misappropriation suit against a prominent Internet gossip blogger

● Representing a renowned artist and illustrator in copyright and trademark infringement suits against several multinational media conglomerates

● Defending a prominent Southern California architect in a novel and high-profile architectural copyright infringement suit involving two multi-million dollar Tuscan-style mansions

● Serving as an expert witness on copyright law in an infringement suit involving architectural works and construction designs under the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act

● Serving as an expert witness on copyright law in an infringement suit involving product labeling and instructions for a major home appliance manufacturer

● Representing a leading financial media publication in numerous copyright, misappropriation and breach of contract suits

Trademark

● Defending the developer of a leading Internet software application against trademark infringement claims by the world's largest peer-to-peer file sharing network

● Representing a major Hollywood studio in a movie title dispute over a prominent forthcoming summer release

● Defending a prominent international Yogini in trademark infringement litigation over a best-selling line of DVDs

● Representing the owners of a famous restaurant chain in a dispute involving trademark ownership and infringement of the restaurant's name

● Representing a leading consumer product company in the extreme sports space regarding protection of its marks

Patent

● Representing a scientist-patentee, the inventor of a microprocessor-controlled artificial respirator system, in a successful willful patent infringement suit against a medical manufacturer that resulted in a $3.5 million judgment, including a $1 million award for attorneys' fees

● Representing a multinational biotechnology conglomerate in patent infringement litigation relating to cardioplegic solutions infused into the human heart to minimize muscle damage during open-heart surgery

● Representing a manufacturer of music-related technology in a patent infringement and antitrust lawsuit

● Defending a publicly traded technology developer in patent infringement litigation involving optoelectronic transceivers and surface emitting lasers for use in multi-gigabit fiber optic telecommunications networks

Notable Appellate Experience

● Obtaining a unanimous affirmance of a dismissal from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in McCormack v. WHA, 2008 WL 2093715, 2008 Copr.L.Dec. P 29,573  (9^th Cir. 2008), a copyright infringement suit involving issues of ownership, standing and federal subject matter jurisdiction

● Obtaining a unanimous reversal and remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Rainwater v. Alarcon, 268 Fed. Appx. 531, 2008 WL 510546 (9^th Cir. 2008), a constitutional challenge to the State of California ’s administration, without informed consent, of medication causing osteoperosis to the involuntarily committed

● Obtaining a unanimous reversal in Taylor v. Delatoore, 281 F.3d 844 (9th Cir. 2002), a civil rights appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

● Obtaining a successful remand in Al Salami v. Ashcroft, No. 02-70260 (9th Cir. 2002), a political asylum appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

● Drafting an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the respondents in Rice v. Cayetano, 528 U.S. 495 (2000), a constitutional and Native Hawaiian rights appeal before the United States Supreme Court

● Representing respondent in Tehrani v. Hamilton Medical, Inc., 331 F.3d 1355 (Fed. Cir. 2003), a patent infringement appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

● Obtaining a unanimous reversal and remand in Crow Irvine #2 v. Winthrop California Investors Limited Partnership, 128 Cal. Rptr. 2d 644 (Ct. App. 2002), a commercial dispute involving partnership rights before the California Court of Appeal

Scholarship Highlights

● Whitewashed ( New York University Press, 2008).

● Infringement Nation: Copyright Reform and the Law/Norm Gap, 2007 UTAH LAW REVIEW 537 (2007).

● Compulsory Whiteness, 82 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL 1 (2007).

● The Secret Life of Legal Doctrine: The Divergent Evolution of Secondary Liability in Trademark and Copyright Law, 21 BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL 1363 (2006) (co-authored with Mark Bartholomew).

● Aloha, Section 1981, LEGAL TIMES (June 19, 2006).

● Whither Copyright? Transformative Use, Free Speech, and an Intermediate Liability Proposal, 2005 B.Y.U LAW REVIEW (2005).

● Copyright Liability After Grokster, CALIFORNIA LAYWER 37 (November 2005).

● The High Court in Cyberspace: MGM v. Grokster, Digital Copyright, and Secondary Infringement Theories, 47 ORANGE COUNTY LAWYER 24 (April 2005).

● Et Tu, Fair Use? The Triumph of Natural-Law Copyright, 38 U.C. DAVIS LAW REVIEW 465 (2005).

● Government Surnames and Legal Identities, in NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS: ESSAYS IN OPPOSITION 11 (Carl Watner, ed., 2004) (co-author with James C. Scott and Jeremy Mathias).

● Sanitizing Cyberspace: Obscenity, Miller and the Future of Public Discourse on the Internet, 11 JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW 1 (2003).

● All Rights Reserved? Reassessing Copyright and Patent Enforcement in the Digital Age, 72 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI LAW REVIEW 45 (2003).

● Optimizing Piracy: Achieving Efficient Management of Intellectual Property Portfolios, in IL CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE LA SOCIEDAD DE LA INFORMACION Y EL CONOCIMIENTO (CISIC) 2003 ANNUAL PROCEEDINGS, New York: McGraw Hill (2003).

● The Creation of Legal Identities Proper to the State: The Case of the Permanent Family Surname, 44 COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY 4 (2002) (co-author with James C. Scott and Jeremy Mathias).

● A New Segregation? Race, Rice v. Cayetano, and the Constitutionality of Hawaiian-Only Education and the Kamehameha Schools, 23 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I LAW REVIEW 109 (2000).

● Performing Whiteness: Naturalization Litigation and the Construction of Racial Identity in America, 109 YALE LAW JOURNAL 817 (2000).

● Famine and the Rule of Law: Freedom of the Press, Regime Consolidation and the Politics of Starvation. A Study of the 1982-1985 Droughts in Ethiopia , Kenya and Zimbabwe , in NOT BY BREAD ALONE: FOOD SECURITY AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA 145 (Ade Ogunrinade et al. eds., 1999).

Professional Affiliations

Admitted to Bar: California .

Admitted to Practice: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; United States District Court for the Central District of California; United States District Court for the Northern District of California; United States District Court for the District of Colorado; all California state courts.

Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), Copyright Law Committee and Education Committee.

Recipient, The Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services from the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California in recognition of pro bono work on behalf of low income clients