Last fall, the Entertainment, Sports & Media Law Initiative, helmed by professor Mo Ivory, added Copyright and Music Publishing, a new course focused on the creation, protection and exploitation of intellectual property in the music industry.
The course was taught by prominent entertainment attorney Kendall Minter, a partner at Atlanta-based Taylor English Duma, LLP, who has more than 35 years of practice in entertainment law. Minter is also one of Ivory's mentors. His client roster has included Jermaine Dupri, The Backstreet Boys, Musiq Soulchild, Kirk Franklin and Tasha Cobbs Leonard, to name a few. Minter is a co-founder and inaugural executive director of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA) and is also the chairman emeritus of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. He also serves on the board of directors of SoundExchange, the Living Legends Foundation, Georgia Music Partners and the DeKalb Entertainment Commission.
In Copyright and Music Publishing, he offered students a more focused approach to build on their understanding of intellectual property law. They discussed everything from music licensing in everything from video games ringtones to Broadway musicals and streaming services.
“The cases which we analyzed were copyright infringement actions,” Minter said. “We dissected, talked about and shared actual cases that I’ve been involved in for copyright infringement in the U.S. District Federal Courts. We discussed the key elements contained in the complaint, the answer, the procedural process, which courts have jurisdiction and damages and remedies.”
James Dean (J.D. '21)
It was Minter’s experience in the field that drew James Dean, who is the president of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society, to the class.
“Taking a course with respected practitioners is always a conversation starter when networking with other attorneys in the field, and they can speak to real experiences, not just some cases they read,” Dean said. “Learning from practitioners is always good to get the real experience and see how things apply in actual law.”
Focusing more on the transactional side of recording and royalty deals, the course also offered students a look at the intersection of entertainment and business law.
Adrian Ashford (J.D. '21)
“Within the entertainment industry, there is a financial piece,” said student Adrian Ashford. “I wanted to focus on finance and banking, but with entertainment law, there’s an intersection of finance and music royalties that merges those two areas together. This class was really focused on both sides and how they work together.”
Minter said the lessons taught in the course can also apply to other areas of intellectual property and copyright law, and with the way the entertainment industry has continued to evolve through the internet, the issues discussed in the course will only become more prominent.
“It’s a major source of revenue in commerce globally,” Minter said. “The key is that, once you understand as an attorney, the importance of copyright for your creative clients, the content creators and the investors, then you can represent them adequately and efficiently to be able to acquire the copyrights, protect the copyrights and monetize them. They become what we call evergreen and generational, because they pay for decades. For the music assets, they are the darling, lifeblood and hot topic in hedge funds and on Wall Street.”
Written by Alex Resnak