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Bill Patry

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Patry, Bill
Patry, Bill
Bill Patry
williampatry@quinnemanuel.com
Biography Recent News Practices Representations

Bill Patry has over 40 years experience as a copyright lawyer. He worked as an inhouse counsel for 17 years at Google; as copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives; as Policy Planning Advisor to the Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright Office, as a law professor, in addition to spending 13 years in private practice advising clients, litigating at the trial and appellate level. His vast experience allows him to see client issues from every possible perspective. His inhouse experience at Google, where he worked on product, policy, and litigation matters, taught him that business problems are best solved by business solutions, and that when instead litigation occurs, the best solution is to find a legal solution that satisfies the business problem.

Bill is the author of numerous treatises and law review articles, including the 8,000 page Patry on Copyright, and the 1500 page Patry on Fair Use. His writings have been cited 12 times by the U.S. Supreme Court most recently in the 2023 Andy Warhol opinion, and close to 1,000 by all courts. While at Google, he was deeply involved in artificial intelligence issues, where his expertise in fair use – the principal issue in AI cases – was invaluable. He is a lifelong musician, and the proud father of two daughters.

Practice Areas

    Artificial IntelligenceCopyright Litigation

Education

  • University of Houston Law Center
    (J.D, 1980)
  • San Francisco State University
    (M.A., Music, 1976)
    (B.A., Music, 1974)

Admissions

  • The State Bar of New York
  • The State Bar of the District of Columbia

Prior Associations

  • Mayer Brown
    • Partner, 2023-2024
  • Google
    • Senior Copyright Counsel
  • Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
    • Professor of Law
  • U.S. House of Representatives
    • Copyright Counsel

Publications and Lectures

  • Patry on Copyright, Thomson Reuters, Westlaw (8 volumes, 1994, (updated twice a year))
  • Patry on Fair Use, Thomson Reuters, Westlaw (1 volume, 1985, updated yearly)  
  • Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • How to Fix Copyright (Oxford University Press 2011)