Catherine Kirkman

1682.jpgCatherine Kirkman is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California. Her practice focuses on intellectual property, licensing and commercial transactions, with specialized expertise in media law, content licensing and e-commerce. Prior to joining WSGR, she practiced at Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles, where she specialized in motion picture, television and music work.

Cathy has extensive expertise in digital media, copyright and Internet law. She regularly advises clients on new business models, content rights issues, copyright and DMCA issues, online contracts, privacy, spam, spyware, as well as patent and technology licensing issues relating to digital rights management and compression standards. In the digital media area she has represented clients such as Google, Creative Commons, Lucasfilm, Gracenote, Synergy Media Group, Napster, InfoSpace (Moviso), Mercora, MusicGremlin, Liquid Audio, LookSmart, Fox Family Music, FoxKids.com, and Bad Boy Technologies (P Diddy). In the gaming sector she has represented clients such as 3DO, Creative Wonders (ABC/EA Home Software), Maxis (SimCity), Global VR (EA Sports), Brilliant Media (Peter Gabriel), Opcode Interactive (Woodstock) and the interactive divisions of A&M Records, Disney, Universal Studios, and Morgan Creek Productions (Ace Ventura).

She also has broad experience in traditional media, with clients such as Pixar, Jerry & Jacqueline Rice Entertainment, Gartner Group, Coordination Group Publications, Hype TV, Preview Media, International Video Network, Environmental Media Fund, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She advises venture capitalists from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and Worldview Technology Partners on media law issues. She has worked on film projects such as "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," "Young Guns II," "For the Boys," "A Woman Named Jackie" mini-series and "The Jacksons: An American Dream" mini-series and received a personal screen credit as production counsel in "The Linguini Incident" starring David Bowie and Rosanna Arquette. She has represented clients such as Converse, The North Face and MCI Communications in their merchandise licensing programs and done countless merchandising deals for major entertainment and sports properties.

Cathy also has broad experience in software, hardware and technology licensing, including specialized expertise relating to open source software issues. Her practice covers development agreements, supply arrangements, strategic alliances, technology transfers, outsourcing, and merger and acquisition transactions, with work in this area for major technology companies such as Hewlett-Packard, 3Com, Palm, Network Associates, McAfee.com, Tut Systems and Broadcom, as well as numerous venture-backed start-up companies. She managed commercial and licensing due diligence for Hewlett-Packard's $8 billion spin-off of Agilent and assisted 3Com and Network Associates in their spin-offs of Palm and McAfee.com.

She is a member of the Planning Committee of the Stanford E-Commerce Best Practices Conference and the USC Intellectual Property Law Institute and the Chair of the ABA Committee on Government Relations to Copyright. She is also a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco's No Glass Ceiling Task Force, and past Co-Chair of its Sports and Entertainment Law Section. She is co-author of West's Internet Law and Practice and serves on the Board of Editor's of American Lawyer Media's Internet Newsletter. For many years she published one of the first listservs on the interactive media industry, the "Interactive Media Weekly Recap" and served as Contributing Editor to Miller Freeman's Web Techniques magazine and to the Computer Game Developers Association's CGDA Report. She has taught at Stanford Law School's Law, Science & Technology Program and has spoken at forums such as Digital Hollywood and MacWorld.
Cathy received her law degree in 1989 with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she was elected to Order of the Coif. At Stanford, Catherine was research assistant to Professor Paul Goldstein in connection with his treatise, Copyright Principles, Law & Practice. Catherine received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1986, where she was graduated magna cum laude and elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Selected Speaking Engagements:

  • "Intellectual Property Practice and Digital Media," UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law (October 2004)
  • "Advanced Licensing Issues in Digital Media," Stanford Law School Colloquium (October 2004)
  • "Advanced Issues in Strategic Alliances," Practicing Law Institute (August, 2004)
  • "Impact of Women on Corporate America," Catalyst/ChildrenFirst (June 2004)
  • "Breaking the Glass Ceiling," Santa Clara County Bar Association (May 2004)
  • "Women in the Law," Stanford Law School (February 2004)
  • "Licensing, Patents and Commercialization," Stanford University (February 2004)
  • "The Future of E-Music," Bar Association of San Francisco (August 2003)
  • "Online Music Infringement and Investor Liability," USC Computer & Internet Law Institute (May 2003)
  • "Intellectual Property in the Start-Up Context," Stanford University (February 2003)
  • "Advanced Open Source Issues," USC Computer & Internet Law Institute (May 2002)
  • "New Media Roundtable," The Recorder magazine (June 2000)