Lawrence Y. Iser

Mr. Iser specializes in the areas of intellectual property, entertainment, commercial, real estate and employment litigation. He handles complex, high-profile matters around the country for clients including Mattel, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, eBay, Univision, ICM Partners, Roland Corporation, and iconic musical artists including Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills & Nash and David Byrne. Mr. Iser is the Managing Partner of KWIKA.

In the area of intellectual property, Mr. Iser counsels clients and litigates on their behalf concerning copyrights and trademarks; patents; unfair competition; the right of publicity; defamation; clearances and fair-use analyses for films, manuscripts, and products; and contracts involving the licensing of intellectual property rights. He counsels and litigates on behalf of Mattel, Inc. in a variety of matters, currently including a copyright lawsuit concerning the creation of the Masters of the Universe® brand, trademark opposition proceedings concerning certain Hot Wheels® cars, intellectual property clearances for the Barbie®, Hot Wheels®, American Girl®, Monster High® and Ever After High® brands; a variety of licensing issues across Mattel’s brands, and the defense of a lawsuit in which the plaintiff, a designer of board games, alleges that Mattel breached a license agreement for the distribution of the board game Outburst! He counsel and litigates on behalf of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment on a number of intellectual property issues, currently including the defense of a trademark infringement lawsuit concerning SeaWorld’s Aquatica water parks. Mr. Iser serves as United States copyright counsel for Roland Corporation, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electronic musical instruments. On behalf of Roland, Mr. Iser leads a KWIKA team handling a number of matters throughout the country, currently including the defense of a patent infringement action pending in the District of Connecticut.

Mr. Iser has earned a national reputation for his representation of musical artists whose songs have been used without permission by national political candidates. He is well known for his work in the music business, representing clients including The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills and Nash, David Byrne, The Ira Gershwin Music Trust, The Doors, Axl Rose, The Rick James Estate, The Janis Joplin Estate, The M.C. Hammer Bankruptcy Estate, The Wiggles, Intocable, Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Yahoo!, eBay/StubHub, Univision Music, Spectrasonics, Maverick Records, Fat Possum Records and ICM Partners.

In the areas of motion pictures and television, Mr. Iser has advised and litigated cases on behalf of actors, directors, producers, distributors, personal managers, talent agents, television networks and motion picture studios. Mr. Iser routinely advises his clients on matters concerning copyright, fair-use, clearances, right of publicity and defamation.

He has served for the past 25 years as outside litigation counsel for real estate developer The Watt Companies. On behalf of Watt and other real estate clients, he has advised and litigated disputes involving breach of contract, fraud, specific performance, brokers’ commissions, landlord-tenant, construction defects and partnership disputes.

Lastly, Mr. Iser regularly represents clients in commercial and employment matters involving breach of contract, wrongful termination and sexual harassment, products liability, insurance coverage, bad faith and subrogation, franchising, securities fraud, partnership disputes and dissolution, and commercial torts. His clients have included manufacturers, importers, lending institutions, law firms, accounting firms, oil and gas companies, airlines and numerous entrepreneurially oriented companies.