Dale Cendali

Partner

Dale Cendali is a partner in O’Melveny’s New York office, Chair of the New York Intellectual Property and Technology Practice, and firmwide Chair of the Copyright, Trademark, and Internet Subpractice.  Dale also co-founded The Firm’s Electronic Discovery and Document Retention Practice, and regularly advises on e-discovery issues.  Dale is a nationally recognized leader in the field of intellectual property litigation, having successfully litigated and tried numerous high-profile cases, and having argued before the United States Supreme Court.

Among her many accolades, Dale was named by The National Law Journal as one of “America’s Top 50 Women Litigators” and as one of the “50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America.”  Chambers USA has repeatedly placed Dale in the “top tier” of America’s Leading Business Lawyers, describing her as "[o]ne of the best lawyers in the country. . ." and a “superb litigator” who “thinks quickly on her feet and vigorously defends her clients.”  An honor reserved for a very select few, Dale has garnered this recognition in not one, but two categories: Media and Entertainment, and Trademark and Copyright litigation.  Dale was also named, in 2007, among “The Top 100 New York Super Lawyers” and “The Top 50 Female New York Super Lawyers.”  Her picture appeared on the cover of the Super Lawyers supplement in The New York Times Magazine, and she was profiled in the feature story “Truth, Justice and the Cendali Way” in the 2007 New York Metro edition of Super Lawyers Magazine and on www.superlawyers.com.  Dale has been recognized by IP Law & Business as one of the “Magnificent Seven – IP’s Best Young Trial Lawyers,” by New York Magazine as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the intellectual property category, by the World Trademark Review as a “Trademark Experts’ Expert,” and by the Harvard Law Bulletin as one of Harvard Law School’s “Nifty 50,” celebrating 50 of Harvard Law School’s 7,200 women alumnae who have made a name for themselves. 

Dale’s practice focuses on copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secrets law, as well as defamation, the right of publicity, false advertising, privacy, complex contract disputes and similar areas.  From cases involving cutting-edge issues of new technology, to entertainment, to core branding and merchandising disputes, Dale has successfully represented domestic and foreign companies in litigation and arbitrations involving a wide range of assets, products and services. Dale also counsels clients regarding the acquisition and retention of intellectual property rights (including Internet issues) and litigates disputes concerning such rights.

Dale chairs and has chaired numerous bar committees and lectures and writes prolifically on intellectual property, media, and litigation topics.  She is also an adjunct professor at Harvard Law School, teaching a course on litigation entitled "Copyright and Trademark Litigation From the TRO to the Supreme Court."

Illustrative Professional Experience

• Arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox in Dastar v. Fox, a copyright and Lanham Act case involving General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s acclaimed memoirs, having won trials below on liability and damages
• Representing Victoria’s Secret in the U.S. Supreme Court with partner Walter Dellinger in a case of first impression interpreting the federal dilution statute, and leading to Dale’s appointment on the International Trademark Association Presidential Select Committee that helped rewrite the federal dilution statute and her key role in preparing for the Congressional hearings regarding the bill
• Winning the highly publicized copyright fair use trial representing J.K. Rowling against RDR Publishing, bringing a halt to the proposed publication of an unauthorized Harry Potter "lexicon" 
• Winning summary judgment in a high-profile copyright and trademark action that accused J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, of plagiarism, as well as $50,000 in sanctions, and an award of attorneys’ fees because of claimants’ fabricated evidence
• Winning a landmark trial on behalf of the Martha Graham Dance Center, in a case that preserved Martha Graham’s dance legacy in a bitterly contested contract, fiduciary duty and intellectual property battle against the heir to Martha Graham’s estate
• Representing MySpace.com in a high-profile copyright action involving the allegedly improper use of music on the widely popular MySpace social networking site, brought by the largest music company in the world, Universal Music Group Recording , Inc. (UMG)
• Representing Nuance Communications, a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world, in several patent infringement, copyright, trademark, contract and trade secret misappropriation actions involving speech recognition and related technology, including cases in the Eastern District of Texas, Delaware, and in private arbitration
• Securing a favorable settlement for License Management Co. during the second week of an expected two and a half week bench trial in the District of Connecticut in a case involving breach of fiduciary duty and corporate opportunity claims, and license rights to the world-famous “Swiss Army” branded products and trademarks
• Leading an O’Melveny team in obtaining a unanimous federal jury verdict in favor of the American National Theatre, a nonprofit theatre organization in New York, in a trademark infringement case brought by ANTA, another nonprofit theater organization, over the right to the American National Theatre mark
• Successfully representing J.K. Rowling in numerous intellectual property disputes nationwide, including a highly publicized copyright infringement action brought against the New York Daily News involving the premature release of excerpts of the fifth Harry Potter book
• Representing a major retail clothing store in its lawsuit seeking injunctive relief and damages based on infringement of its brand, and additionally defending the client in a suit seeking injunctive relief and damages based on alleged trademark and copyright infringement relating to certain of plaintiff's logos
• Representing Honeywell in class actions premised on fraud on the trademark office involving the famous Honeywell Round trademark for thermostats
• Representing and advising Lionel LLC in all of its intellectual property litigation, and in developing, protecting and enforcing its intellectual property rights, including assisting to secure the reversal of a $40 million adverse judgment on trade secret claims that threatened the company with bankruptcy, and successfully resolving a high- profile trademark dispute against Union Pacific train line
• Successfully representing Twentieth Century Fox in a high-profile copyright, false advertising, and breach of contract lawsuit against Marvel Comics, Tribune, and Fireworks concerning the movie X-Men and television show Mutant X
• Winning summary judgment for Twentieth Century Fox in a copyright infringement matter brought by the purported owner of the photograph allegedly used to create the “I WANT TO BELIEVE” poster in Fox Mulder’s office on The X-Files
• Successfully representing Time Warner Entertainment and related companies, such as Time Inc. and Home Box Office, in a variety of matters including a major fraud in the inducement contract case and the successful defeat of a preliminary injunction involving Time’s expansion of its “Real Simple” line of products
• Successfully defending the Gallo Winery from false advertising charges brought by Heublein in a case that involved the extensive use of survey experts
• Successfully representing various major companies in arbitrations involving numerous contractual issues involving hundreds of millions of dollars
• Obtaining transfers of domain names for numerous companies pursuant to both the ICANN dispute resolution procedures and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and counseling on Internet issues in general
• Defeating as a prior restraint O.J. Simpson’s attempt to enjoin broadcast of the Simpson/Brown wedding video and later obtaining a demurrer as failing to state a claim under privacy and unfair competition law

Professional Activities

Admitted to Practice,  U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan; U.S. District Court, Northern District of California; U.S. Court of Appeals, First, Second, and Ninth Circuits, Federal Circuit; United States Supreme Court
Member,  American Bar Association; New York State Bar Association (Media Law Committee; IP Committee; Cyberlaw Committee); Association of the Bar of the City of New York (Trademarks and Unfair Competition Committee; Communications and Media Law Committee; Copyright and Literary Property Committee)
Awards,  Named by The National Law Journal as one of “America’s Top 50 Women Litigators” and as one of the “50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America;” named by Chambers USA as one of America’s Leading Business Lawyers in the fields of Intellectual Property and Media and Entertainment; specially recognized by the Legal 500 (2008) as a "leading lawyer" in the field of copyright law; profiled in the September/October 2008 issue of "Profiles In Diversity Journal" as a "Woman Worth Watching" in 2009; selected as a 2009 LawDragon 500 finalist; repeatedly named a “New York Super Lawyer” in surveys published by The New York Times and the New York edition of Super Lawyers; highly recommended by Practical Law Company; named by IP Law & Business, a division of American Lawyer Media, as one of “The Magnificent 7 – IP’s Best Young Trial Lawyers;” named by New York Magazine as one of the Best Lawyers In America; named by the Harvard Law Bulletin as one of the “Nifty 50,” celebrating 50 of Harvard Law School’s women graduates who made a name for themselves; included in the 2009 edition of The Best Lawyers in America
Chair,  Association of the Bar of the City of New York Trademarks and Unfair Competition Committee; INTA’s Dilution and Well-Known Marks Committee
Co-Chair,  ABA, Litigation Section, Intellectual Property Committee, 1997-2000; the ABA Women in IP initiative, Programming for the ABA Litigation Section’s Annual Meeting; New York State Bar Association, Intellectual Properties Committee, Subcommittee on the Work for Hire Doctrine, 1989-1991
Co-Director,  ABA Litigation Section, Division VII
Task Force,  INTA Select Committee on the Federal Dilution Act; ABA Litigation Section Task Force on Electronic Discovery; ABA Task Force on Training the Trial Lawyer
Advisor,  Program Committee of the Board of Directors of American Law Institute-American Bar Association Continuing Professional Education
Advisory Committee,  PriceWaterhouseCoopers IP Leadership Forum
Visiting Committee,  member Harvard Law School visiting committee
Adjunct Professor,  Harvard Law School (Fall, 2008)
Selected Speeches,  "Copyright Considerations for User Generated Content," American Intellectual Property Law Association, Annual Meeting (October 23, 2008); "Making Rain:  Taking the Lead in Bringing in Business," Celebration 55:  The Women's Leadership Summit, Harvard Law School (September 2008); "First Chair: Trying Intellectual Property Cases," American Bar Association, Annual Meeting:  Commission on Women in the Profession -- Day of Equality (August 7, 2008); "How to Try an IP Case," lecture to U.S. Justice Department Attorneys at their annual retreat; "Hot Issues in Dilution Law," INTA Annual Meeting; "Copyright and Trademark: the Year in Review, the Los Angeles Copyright Society; "The Supreme Court and IP," ABA IP Section;" Trademark Issues on the Internet," Workshop on the Internet and the Law: A Program for Federal Judges at the NYU Judicial Center; "The Victoria’s Secret Case," The New York State Bar Association; "Post-Napster: The Broadband Bonanza," ABA Intellectual Property Section Annual Meeting; "Private and Public Enforcement of False Advertising," PLI Internet Law Institute; "Electronic Discovery," PLI Information Technology Institute; "Personal Jurisdiction and the Internet," ABA Corporate Counsel Mid-Year Committee Meeting at La Quinta; "The Dastar case and the Supreme Court," the AIPLA; "Hidden Claims in Intellectual Property Protection," Association of American Publishers’ Lawyers’ Committee; "Legal Developments in Trademark Law and the Internet," PLI Fifth Annual Internet Law Institute; "Legal Developments in Trademark Law and the Internet," INTA Annual Meeting; "Recent Developments: Copyright Law, Trademark Law, Right of Publicity and Parallel Imports," CLE Presentation; "Hot Internet Topics: The Latest Word in Domain Name Dispute Resolution, Privacy Issues on Anonymous Speech, and a Practical Guide for Lawyers to Finding Helpful Information on the Web," New York State Bar Association Special Committee on Cyberspace Law; "Trademark Protection and the Internet," PriceWaterhouseCoopers 2001 Intellectual Property Leadership Forum; "Electronic Discovery," PLI Information Technology Litigation Seminar; "Basic Federal Civil Practice: Motion Practice," New York State Bar Association Basic Federal Civil Practice Training Materials; "Advertising and Consumer Protection on the Internet: How to Ensure That Your Site Complies with Consumer Protection Laws;" "How to Protect Intellectual Property Rights on the Internet?" ABA National Institute on High Tech Law; "Internet Issues Involving Trademarks," INTA; "Electronic Discovery," PLI’s Annual Internet Law Institute; "The Intersection of Intellectual Property and the First Amendment on the Internet," PLI’s Libel and Newsgathering Conference; "Representing dot.com Companies," ABA Annual Meeting; "Motion Practice," The New York State Bar Association’s Civil Litigation Seminar; "Trademarks and the Internet," UCLA’s Entertainment Industry Symposium; "The Extra-Territoriality of IP," CLE Presentation; "Personal Jurisdiction and the Internet," PLI’s Annual Internet Law Institute; "Who Should Try A High Tech Case?" ABA Litigation Section Annual Meeting; "Patent Damages Revisited," Price Waterhouse IP Leadership Conference; "Evidence Law," New York State Bar Association Practical Evidence Seminar; "Book Publishing: Intellectual Property, Privacy, Libel and Contract Issues," Entertainment, Sports an Publishing Law Seminar, sponsored by the University of Houston Law Foundation and the University of California at Davis Law School, Los Angeles, California, and Austin, Texas; and "Intellectual Property Issues Relating to Computer Technology," The Law Show, a nationally and internationally syndicated radio program.
Author,  Numerous publications to accompany speeches on Dilution Law, Electronic Discovery, IP and the Supreme Court and other topics (2000-2008); "Copyright Litigation" chapter in Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel (Robert L. Haig, ed., 1st ed., Fall 2000 by West Group and ACA) (First Author); Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc.: One Answer, Many Questions, 93 The Trademark Law Reporter 833 (2003) (First Author), "How to Ensure Your Website Complies with Consumer Protection Laws;" Internet Law & Business, (October 2002); "Trademark Protection and the Internet," UCLA Symposium and INTA Annual Meeting, 2001; "Electronic Discovery," PLI’s Fourth Annual Internet Law Institute, (June 2000); "An Overview of Intellectual Property Issues Relating to the Internet," 89 Trademark Reporter 485 (1999) (First Author); "The Internet and Jurisdiction: The International Experience," The Computer Law Association Bulletin, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1999) (Co-Author); "Personal Jurisdiction in Cyberspace," The New York Law Journal, (July 20, 1998) (First Author); "How to Protect Your Intellectual Property on the Internet?" Price Waterhouse Leadership Conference, (1998); "Freelancers Reeling In Fight Over Online Rights: Tasini v. The New York Times," The National Law Journal, (October 20, 1997); "Personal Jurisdiction and the Internet," PLI’s Annual Internet Law Institute, (1997 and 1998); "Net Use Raises Issues of Jurisdiction," The National Law Journal (October 28, 1996) (First-Author); "You Name It: To What Extent Can A Surname Be Used As A Trademark?" Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal (April 25, 1996) (Co-Author); "In Lotus, The 1st Circuit Departed From Precedent, Narrowing Protection For Developed Software And Giving Crafty Litigators A Blank Disk On Which To Write," The National Law Journal (May 15, 1995) (First-Author); "The Book Publishing Industry: Intellectual Property, Privacy, Libel and Contract Issues," The Texas Bar Association (March 1995); "Other Methods of Proof," The New York Bar Association’s Practical Evidence Program (December 1994); "Computer Interfaces Test Copyright Law’s Scope," The National Law Journal (October 31, 1994) (First-Author); "Lotus Case Highlights Copyright Issues and High-Tech Problems," The National Law Journal (November 1, 1993) (Co-Author); "Book Publishing," University of Houston Law Foundation and University of California at Davis School of Law (July 1993 and July 1994); "Federal Preemption of State Dilution Statutes," The New York Law Journal (April 12, 1993) (Co-Author); "Sega Case Suggests Protection Strategies," The National Law Journal (January 18, 1993) (Co-Author); "Ferrari Case Shows Collision of Competing [Trade Dress and Patent] Protection Concepts," The National Law Journal (October 12, 1992); "Fact-Compilation Ruling May Hinder [Copyright] Protection," The National Law Journal (June 17, 1991); "The Work for Hire Doctrine After CCNV v. Reid," New York State Bar Journal (July 1990) (Principal Co-Author); "Enjoining A Tender Offer for Misuse of Confidential Information: Is It A Show-Stopper or Can The Bidder Cure?" The Journal of Proprietary Rights [December 1989 (Part I); January 1990 (Part II)] (First Author), abstract reprinted in The Bowne Digest for Corporate & Securities Lawyers (April 1990); "Representing The Employee In A Trade Secret Case," The Corporate Analyst (August 1989) (First Author), Reprinted in The Corporate Counsel’s Guide to Protecting Trade Secrets; "In Search Of Truth, A Review of Renata Adler’s Reckless Disregard," 15 Northern Kentucky Law Review 227 (1987); "Entering and Leaving the Employer-Employee Relationship, Planning For Possible Litigation, Strategic Aspects of Litigation," Trade Secret Law Reporter, Vol. II, Nos. 10-11 (1987); "Of Things To Come–The Actual Impact of Herbert v. Lando and a Proposed National Correction Statute," 22 Harvard Journal on Legislation 441 (1985), Partially reprinted in M. Franklin, Cases and Materials on Mass Media Law 293-295 (3d Ed. 1987)