A Georgia State Law Moot Court team won Best Brief and advanced to the quarterfinals at the Cardozo Entertainment and Copyright Law Moot Court Competition in New York City for the second year in a row. The Cardozo competition is one of the premier intellectual property law competitions in the nation.
The team consisted of Wesley Moore (B.B.A. ’14, J.D. ’18) and Samuel Mullman (B.A. ’15, J.D. ’18), and was coached by Emily Polk (J.D. ’18) and beat out Michigan, John Marshall (Chicago), and New York University to advance to the quarterfinals.
“The competition was overall a great way to showcase how far Georgia State has come in its pursuits to be a center for intellectual property,” Mullman said. “Winning best brief two years in a row at the most prestigious copyright competition in the country should mean a lot to all students and attorneys who practice in IP and went to Georgia State.”
The competition problem focused on a complex copyright law issue and involved the assertion of the fair use defense of parody in a copyright infringement action, the claim for damages resulting from non-pecuniary harm, and when copyright registration actually occurs. The facts of the problem dealt with a pop group who parodied a religious artist’s song. The team was required to perform oral arguments on behalf of both parties at the competition but argued on behalf of the pop artist in their brief.
“It was a joy exercising our advocacy skills towards a subject that we genuinely enjoy,” Moore said. “The problem contained many highly-contested issues that are relevant hot topics within Intellectual Property law.”
The brief and arguments had a quick turn-around time, and to prepare for the competition, the team researched and wrote their brief over the course of two weeks and practiced oral arguments twice per day. They were assisted by Georgia State Law professors, Michael B. Landau and Yaniv Heled, and local practitioners including Justin Kerenyi (J.D. ’00) at Hall Booth Smith PC.
“We were honored to represent Georgia State Law in the heart of New York City during our last semester of law school. We both attended Georgia State for undergrad as well, so this campus has been our home for the past seven years,” Moore said. “It was an incredible feeling to hear our school’s name called for the Best Brief Award. We look forward to applying our writing and oral advocacy skills in practice.”