When you walk in to Matt Williams’s office, you’ll be surrounded by large paintings by local Washington, DC artists, contemporary furniture and minimal clutter (usually). Matt’s approach to designing his office space was similar to his approach to legal practice – stay organized to open up space for creativity to shine. Matt also sees this as one of the primary jobs of a lawyer who often represents clients in cases and matters involving intellectual property infringement, protection, and ownership. If the attorney does the job well and prevents legal issues and disputes from generating unnecessary distractions and expenses, the clients have more time and resources to continue to entertain, to educate, to innovate, to succeed in business, and to express themselves. Helping clients achieve those goals is one reason why Matt chose copyright law as his primary practice area.

Legal Expertise

Matthew Williams specializes in intellectual property and entertainment issues, especially copyright issues concerning the DMCA, fair use, and substantial similarity.  For nearly two decades, he has represented trade associations in triennial Copyright Office rule-making proceedings regarding regulatory exemptions to the chapter 12 circumvention prohibition.  Matt was very involved during Copyright Office processes resulting in the transmission to Congress of the 2017 “Report of the Register of Copyrights on Section 12 of Title 17”.

Another significant part of Matt’s practice includes preparing and submitting amicus/amici curiae briefs in federal courts, from the U.S. Supreme Court to numerous U.S. Courts of Appeals and U.S. District Courts.  Some cases of importance include the Supreme Court cases Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts v. Goldsmith, Oracle v. Google, Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com; Allen v. Cooper, American Broad. Cos. v. Aereo, and at the cert stage, Cable News Network v. CSC Holdings (i.e. Cablevision) and Authors Guild v. Google.

Civil litigation—usually in federal courts— is also key to Matt’s practice.  He has extensive experience representing media clients against copyright infringement and implied-in-fact contract claims (including multiple cases about blockbuster motion pictures). He also has litigated numerous cases for copyright owner plaintiffs, including those involving large scale infringement.

Previously, Matt served as the Executive Director and Legal Counsel to the Coalition for Online Accountability (COA), a group of companies, trade associations, and copyright member organizations dedicated to enhancing and strengthening online transparency and accountability. COA advocates within ICANN and to governmental policymakers that domain name and IP address WHOIS databases remain publicly accessible, accurate, and reliable as key tools against online infringement of copyright, as well as to combat trademark infringement, cybersquatting, phishing, and other fraudulent or criminal acts online.  This work included focusing on privacy issues, such as those arising from the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the E.U.’s recently adopted Network and Information Security Directive (NIS2). 

Finally, Matt enjoys pursuing ideas and arguments in law review articles and other publications.  For example, he has been published in Berkeley Journal of Law and Technology, UCLA Entertainment Law Review, Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, and North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology. In 2010-2011 Matt was a Practitioner-in-Residence at the American University Washington College of Law, where he taught International and Comparative Copyright Law and an Intellectual Property Seminar focused on litigating IP cases and other IP policy issues. During law school, Matt served on the Editorial Board of the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law.  

Representative Matters

• Prevailed at trial in a Southern District of New York tortious interference of contract case for a music publisher against a rival publisher that caused a songwriter to breach a covenant not to sue by claiming copyright ownership of iconic rap songs.  Court awarded the client over $1.3 million in damages.
• Obtained summary judgment or dismissal in cases concerning the motion pictures Avatar, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Supersize Me, Brokeback Mountain, Men in Black 3, and Anonymous.
• Represented counter-plaintiff record labels in a complex copyright infringement case in the Middle District of Florida against multi-level marketing companies,In re Record Company Infringement Litigation.
• Defeated a motion to dismiss and counterclaims in a Central District of California antitrust case of first impression regarding markets in defensive registrations for internet domain names and the creation of new top-level domains (TLDs), resulting in a favorable settlement.

Honors & Awards

• "Top Music Lawyers," Billboard (2023)
• "Outstanding IP Practitioner," World Intellectual Property Review Leaders Directory, 2023

Professional, Business and civic Affiliations

• Former Executive Director, Coalition for Online Accountability
• Former ICANN Intellectual Property Constituency, Participation Coordinator
• Former Co-Chair, DC Chapter of Copyright Society of the USA
• Member, Recording Academy

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Events & Speaking Engagements

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