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.