Trademark

In a recent interview with Bloomberg BNA, Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme – a partner in Pryor Cashman’s Intellectual Property and Digital Media Groups – discussed how AT&T’s potential acquisition of Time Warner, Inc. will impact the telecommunications giant’s intellectual property holdings.

If consummated, the $85.4 billion purchase will give AT&T ownership of several highly valuable film and television properties including Batman, Superman, Harry Potter and the TV library of HBO (e.g. “Veep,” “Game of Thrones” and “The Wire”), along with some of entertainment’s most prominent brands and trademarks, worth an estimated $4 billion, according to SEC filings.

“If this goes through, [AT&T] is going to become a gorilla on the same footing with Comcast,” Finguerra-DuCharme said, referencing the company’s 2015 acquisition of DirecTV as well as the vast library of content it will own if the deal is finalized. AT&T has said it hopes the purchase will close by the end of 2017, pending approval by federal regulators. 

In addition to content, AT&T will acquire Time Warner’s substantial litigation docket – 45 percent of which involves copyright infringement matters – and, therefore, a significant interest in preventing unauthorized use of its content.

Finguerra-DuCharme believes the acquisition is the next logical step for AT&T: “[It] just goes hand-in-hand with what their capabilities really are.”

To read the full October 25, 2016 article, please visit here.

More About Finguerra-DuCharme

Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme is recognized as a “Leading Trademark Lawyer” by World Trademark Review, and is the winner of Lexology and International Law Office’s 2016 Client Choice Award in Intellectual Property: Trademarks. To learn more about her practice at Pryor Cashman, please visit here.