Robert L. Raskopf

 

New York Office
Tel: 212-849-7000
Fax: 212-849-7100
robertraskopf@quinnemanuel.com
Practice Areas
Entertainment, Media and Internet Litigation
Intellectual Property Litigation
Sports Litigation

Education

Boston College Law School, (J.D., 1976)

     Boston College Law Review:

          Editor, 1976  

 

Boston College (B.S., magna cum laude, 1973)

     Beta Gamma Sigma

 






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Biography

 

Mr. Raskopf is a prominent trial and appellate lawyer in the intellectual property, media, sports, entertainment and privacy bars.  His practice includes the following substantive areas:  trademark, copyright, libel/First Amendment, privacy/publicity, patent, product configuration, trade dress, trade secrets and advertising. He has litigated many cases through trial and appeal, both jury and non-jury, in state and federal court, and has been counsel of record in over 60 reported decisions. 
Mr. Raskopf also has a long history in privacy-related matters.  He also counsels multinational clients concerning compliance with the growing web of global privacy and data protection laws and oversees the firm’s annual Global Privacy Symposium, which is co-sponsored by BNA’s Privacy & Security Law Report.




Representative Clients

 

Chief outside intellectual property, litigation and licensing counsel to the NFL and its member clubs for more than two decades, and many of the decisions he has obtained for the NFL are recognized as being among the farthest reaching in sports marketing law. 


In the sports marketing and media fields, he has also represented the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Discovery Communications, Women’s United Soccer Association, ESPN, The Thomson Corporation, Score/Pinnacle Trading Cards, Comcast, Verizon, United Business Media, PRNewswire, CMP Media, Newsday, Village Voice, Gruner & Jahr, The National Sports Daily, Playoff/Donruss Trading Cards, and TheStreet.com. 


In the consumer products field he has represented Colgate-Palmolive, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gucci, priceline and Brach's Confections.


In privacy-related matters, he has been the lead libel lawyer for Newsday, New York Newsday, TheStreet.com and National Sports Daily.




Notable Representations

 

Sports Entertainment and Media Litigation

 

Representing the National Football League and the Dallas Cowboys in seeking a declaration of their right to employ the mark America's Team in connection with a variety of commercial activities.


Representing Major League Soccer in a reverse confusion case wherein a soccer club named the Carolina Dynamos, seek to undo the new nickname of an MLS team, the Houston Dynamos.


Representing the Mexican National Football Team in an unfair competition case against a calling card company who employed indicia on product and promotional materials corresponding to the official jersey of the team.


Represented both the landline and wireless companies of Verizon in separate, multi-party federal patent infringement actions pending in federal court in Pennsylvania concerning certain call-blocking technology.


Represented ESPN, Inc., and Orley Adelson Productions, Inc., in a trademark infringement action brought by Playmakers LLC, concerning the use of "Playmakers" in the title of a critically acclaimed television series concerning the off-field lives of professional football players.  The Plaintiff alleged that ESPN's "Playmakers" series amounted to reverse confusion and overwhelmed its sports agency brand, causing consumers to believe that its agency was owned by or affiliated with ESPN.  A preliminary injunction was denied in a federal district court and later affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.  The district court later granted ESPN's motion for summary judgment which was upheld by the Ninth Circuit.

 

Represented the National Football League and the Green Bay Packers in a trademark infringement and trade secret case against a company that had obtained publicity rights from various Packers players to use their names and numbers on football jerseys.  Notwithstanding that the defendant had obtained those rights from the players, because it had not received approval from our clients, the jury in Milwaukee rendered a verdict in our favor, which was upheld by the Seventh Circuit.


Represented ESPN, Inc., the owner and creator of the nation's premier action sports competition known as the X Games, in an action for trademark infringement in federal court in New York against The X Channel, Inc., which intended to launch a national television channel featuring action sports.  After obtaining a temporary restraining order, the court quickly set a preliminary injunction hearing and the case settled promptly.


Defended the National Football League and the Baltimore Ravens against claims, in the billions, of copyright infringement, brought by an amateur artist regarding the Raven's helmet logo.  After the jury had found for the plaintiff on liability, we were brought in to try the damages case.  We obtained a jury verdict of zero damages and persuaded the jury that the logo infringed did not drive any revenue generating activity but, rather, such large revenues were solely the result of the inherent power of the NFL brand and the sport itself.  The verdict was affirmed by the Fourth Circuit and the Supreme Court denied cert.


Represented the owner of the rights to the Heisman Trophy when an athletic club claimed breach of contract.  In addition to restoring the marketing and television rights, the client obtained specific performance of the contract and was also awarded damages for the breach.


Represented the National Football League and the Cleveland Browns in a trademark infringement case against an apparel company over use of the "Dawg Pound" brand and logo.  Obtained summary judgment on trademark priority.


Other Intellectual Property Litigation

Representing Madison Square Garden in an action brought by a film production company regarding the distribution of a documentary in which Madison Square Garden is the subject. 


Representing Wal-Mart in a series of domain name infringement actions brought before the World Intellectual Property Organization.  Wal-Mart has been successful in having the domain names transferred in several of these actions.


Representing Wal-Mart in an action against the creator of merchandise bearing designations associating Wal-Mart with the Holocaust and Al-Queda by seeking to enjoin such activities under theories of the federal and state trademark and anti-dilution law.

Representing Societe des Baines de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco, the owner and operator of the Casino de Monte-Carlo in Monaco, in a trademark infringement and anti-cybersquatting case in the United States claiming the defendant's website, casino software and domain name infringe its Casino De Monaco trademark.


Privacy and First Amendment Litigation

 

Represented Wprost, a Polish national news magazine akin to Time or Newsweek, against claims by  the daughter of a prominent Polish politician that facts published about her father's involvement in a controversial stock purchase were false.  The case was dismissed when it was shown that the court could not exercise personal jurisdiction over Wprost, and that the magazine's website, written almost entirely in Polish, was not targeting readers in South Carolina, where the suit was brought.


Represented the CEO of iPayment Inc. in connection with anonymous defamatory content posted about him and other company executives on the Yahoo Financial pages.  In a related matter for the company in federal bankruptcy court in California, he handled multiple allegations of fraud and related claims in connection with a series of transactions separating the two companies


Represented Gruner + Jahr AG in a high-profile libel action in federal court in Texas in which the trial court dismissed the complaint. The matter decision was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit.


Represented Colgate-Palmolive in a dispute over the defamatory content of the Safe Shoppers Bible, a book published by Simon & Shuster, that included false claims that Ajax contained carcinogens.  After drafting a complaint and sending it to the publisher, the content of the book was re-written in a manner acceptable to the client.

 

Represented Audubon Magazine, the publication of the National Audubon society, in a federal defamation action in Fresno, California over the publication of information about an alleged importer of endangered species.