United States • Intellectual property
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Copyright

Joseph Gratz

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Morrison Foerster

Morrison Foerster‘s IP litigation team utilizes its global footprint, spanning Asia, Europe and the Americas to counsel clients in a broad range of cases involving literary works, theatre works, visual artwork, sounds recordings and multi media products. The team handle a prolific flow of copyright enforcement and litigation issues fueled by a sophistication in IP owners effort to protect their assets. Adept in a wide range of IP matters practice heads lead from locations across the US: Brian Nash in Austin, Bita Rahebi in Los Angeles, Timothy Chen Saulsbury in San Francisco and Mark Whitaker in Washington DC. Los-Angeles based lawyer Benjamin Fox , leverages his trial experience for high-stakes copyright and trademark litigation cases. While, San Francisco’s Joseph Gratz boasts deep expertise at the intersection of copyright and new technologies, such as generative AI. Gratz has established precents in internet law and often serves as lead counsel in AI copyright cases, such as numerous ongoing cases for OpenAI which may have pivotal consequences for AI copyright law. Allyson Bennett departed in September 2024.
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Position

Joseph C. Gratz | Patent Litigation, Trademark & AI Law | Morrison Foerster

Clients turn to Joe Gratz to handle trailblazing litigation where copyright and trademark law meet new technologies. An experienced litigator, Joe draws on his strong technical background to distill complex issues into simple, accurate concepts for judges, juries, and clients.

Joe’s cases have set key precedents in Internet law, from the Google Books case that laid the groundwork for today’s generative AI innovations to key cases establishing the boundaries of intermediary liability. In addition to representing their interests in the courtroom, Joe helps his clients navigate their thorniest product counseling puzzles to reduce the risk of litigation.

His appellate victory in Long v. Facebook set the standard for platforms in carrying out DMCA removals of user-generated content. And Joe’s win in Stevens v. CoreLogic established limitations on DMCA 1202 claims that have since been adopted by numerous other courts. His amicus brief on behalf of independent booksellers was cited by the Supreme Court in its opinion in Wiley v. Kirtsaeng, and he has submitted amicus briefs in other copyright cases on behalf of Center for Democracy & Technology (in Oracle v. Google) and on behalf of art law professors (in Warhol v. Goldsmith).

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Key clients

  • Anthropic Inc
  • Archer Aviation, Inc.
  • Autodesk, Inc.
  • Block Inc.
  • Chap Mei Plastic Toys Manufactory Ltd.
  • Eastside Golf, Inc.
  • F5, Inc.
  • Figma Inc
  • Internet Archive
  • Learneo Inc
  • Meta Platforms, Inc.
  • Midjourney Inc.
  • OpenAI LP
  • Pinterest Inc
  • Redbubble Inc
  • Researchgate Gmbh
  • Sony Interactive Entertainment
  • Splunk Inc.
  • Squarespace Inc
  • Stability Ai
  • Tencent Holdings Limited
  • Teradata Corp
  • Upcodes Inc
  • Varex Imaging Corp
  • Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

Work highlights

Acts as lead counsel for OpenAI in multiple ongoing cases, including a class action DMCA suit alleging the removal of copyright management information in collaboration with GitHub to develop Copilot. The case has progressed to the point where only a breach of contract claim remains following the dismissal of other claims.
Represents Stability AI, creator of the Stable Diffusion 2.0 image-generation generative AI tool, in all of its U.S. litigation. In a case in the Northern District of California, a group of illustrators allege that the operation of Stable Diffusion infringes copyrights in visual works that the model was trained. In a case in the District of Delaware, stock photo provider Getty Images alleges that the operation of Stable Diffusion infringes copyrights in photographs in which Getty owns copyrights.
Represents UpCodes against allegations filed by ASTM for multiple counts of copyright infringement, vicarious and contributory copyright infringement, alteration or removal of copyright management information, trademark infringement, unfair competition, and trademark dilution.