Practice Strengths

Baker Hostetler has one of the foremost Media Law practices in the country and features a Media and Technology Mergers and Acquisitions team that serves as a leading advisor in all forms of media industry transactions for companies focused on both content and distribution. With more than 75 M&A team members in 11 offices from California to New York, and with a global network of firms often considered “best in class” for their practice areas, we are well-positioned to support our media clients’ business objectives nationally and internationally.

Our lawyers count among their clients some of the industry’s largest and most prominent entertainment, new media, sports organizations and financial sponsors. Baker Hostetler’s counsel to media companies began with newspapers before there was radio, and we have stayed at the forefront of media changes ever since that time.

In an increasingly complex marketplace, where the ability to provide content overlaps with the mastery of distribution and other technologies, our team navigates critical and evolving issues in the media arena.

Our Media and Technology Mergers and Acquisitions team regularly advises companies on the following transactional activities:

• Counsel on all forms of software, trademark, copyright, patent and other forms of intellectual property licensing
• Monetizing and licensing of patent, copyright and trademark portfolios
• Stock and asset acquisitions and divestitures
• Content, distribution, production, affiliation agreements and long-term licensing transactions
• Diligence reviews relating to “open-source” software
• Joint ventures, partnership arrangements and strategic alliances
• Outsourcing transactions

Baker Hostetler serves as regular corporate counsel for a number of companies in new media, television, radio, software, advertising, publishing, music and live entertainment and other high technology. Through that experience, we have established ourselves as a thought leader in the field. Our attorneys serve as featured speakers at global mergers and acquisitions conferences, and one team member authored the best selling publication, Emerging Technologies and the Law.

Beyond the Transaction

We are experienced in counseling both content- and distribution-sector clients on a full range of issues beyond the transaction itself. In content-related matters, we regularly advise clients on all aspects of user-generated content, authors’ rights of recapture and chain of title issues. In website counseling, we routinely tackle issues surrounding personal data transfer, rights of privacy, terms of use and the DMCA hosting exemption. In software counseling, we regularly encounter issues relating to open source.

Members of the Baker Hostetler Media and Technology Mergers and Acquisitions team not only have a keen understanding of their core corporate competencies but also understand key industry issues—from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the Broadcast Employees Freedom to Work Act and other state media-centric employment laws. We draw our knowledge from a wealth of legal talent in many specialty areas of expertise, including intellectual property, information and data privacy, tax, labor, technology export control, and FCPA and FCC regulatory advice.