LLOYD J. JASSIN

Blending Legal Advice With Business Insight

I'm a publishing attorney and former book publishing executive. My goal is to help my author, literary agent and publisher clients avoid contractual traps for the unwary and negotiate win-win deals. I will let you know if a contract is viable and what it will take to make it signable. I’m here to answer questions about book contracts, working with a ghostwriter, film options, copyright, permissions, defamation, and privacy rights, and provide line-by-line libel reviews of unpublished manuscripts. My practice includes helping individuals and businesses select, register, maintain, and protect their valuable trademarks. Whether selecting a title for a book series, or the name of your book publishing imprint, an app, podcast, or blog, I can help you avoid trademark infringement by doing a trademark clearance search.  

I offer a broad understanding of the industries in which my clients operate and a network of contacts within the publishing, entertainment, and licensing communities. 

Before becoming an attorney, I enjoyed a successful career in book publishing, working for Simon & Schuster, Macmillan Publishing, and St. Martin's Press. Consequently, clients gain access to all of the knowledge, counsel, and advocacy that my firm can provide.

Upon graduating from law school in 1991, I worked for Viacom Enterprises, a division of Viacom International (now Paramount Global), the world's largest independent distributor of feature films and off-network television programming. Later, I joined Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, where I worked, primarily on trademark matters, with clients in the publishing, television, music, fashion, and character licensing industries.

I'm the co-author, with Steven C. Schechter, of The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook (John Wiley & Sons). I've been quoted in Publishers Weekly,  The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other national publications. I've taken the stage at BookExpo, and spoken at Publishers Weekly, Book Industry Study Group, Dramatists Guild, and Copyright Society events. At the New York University Center for Publishing, I taught a class on digital rights and permissions.

For many years, I volunteered as chair of the Center for Independent Publishing executive committee and as First Amendment counsel for the Independent Book Publishers Associations (IBPA). I currently serve on the Beacon Press advisory board and the Trademark and Unfair Competition Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. 

I received my Juris Doctorate from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1991.  I am admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey. I also practice before the USPTO, preparing and prosecuting applications for trademark registration.  

My office is located at 1501 Broadway, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10036, (212) 354-4442.  email: jassin@copylaw.org. I also maintain a practice in Madison, N.J.  

 

Partial List of Speaking Engagements

• Celebrity Lessons & Estate Planning: Copyright Termination, National Estate Planning & Legacy Week, Webinar, October 22, 2021, Dramatists Guild [Click here to view webinar]
• The Real Person in Your Play, Webinar, April 16, 2020, Dramatists Guild
• Representing Writers, Designers, Artists, Musicians, and More: Getting the Best Results For New Jersey's Finest Creative Minds, Continuing Legal Education Program, New Jersey Law Center, August 1, 2019, New Jersey State Bar Association
• Negotiating Book Publishing Contracts, Continuing Legal Education Program, June 28, 2017, Philadelphia Bar Association
• 2013: Getting Copyright Termination Right, Continuing Legal Education Program, The Copyright Society, Philadelphia, PA

ATTORNEY ADVERTING

"Books are the intellectual property headwaters of revenue streams as diverse as motion pictures, podcasts, and ways previously thought possible only in science fiction."

--Lloyd Jassin