Kelli L. Sager

Sager handles copyright and trademark cases. She defends clients against idea submission claims, misappropriation claims, defamation and privacy claims and attempts at prior restraint or other restrictions on publication. She litigates reporters' shield law issues and internet law cases. Her clients include the Los Angeles Times, NBCUniversal Inc. and A&E Television Networks LLC.

When entertainer Gene Kelly's widow sued a university media and cinema studies instructor for copyright infringement over a proposed book of edited Kelly interviews, Sager successfully represented the instructor, Kelli Marshall. The widow claimed she owns all of the words spoken by Kelly — who died in 1996 — during any interview he gave during his lifetime, Sager said.

"It was a very aggressive theory," Sager added. "The copyright owner is typically the one who fixes the words into a work. This claim would come as a huge surprise to reporters." Kelly v. University Press of Mississippi, 2:16-cv-02960 (C.D. Cal., filed April 29, 2016).

Sager contended, among other arguments, that because no book has yet been published, the case is not yet ripe for adjudication. On Aug. 16, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson of Los Angeles agreed. "The Court has little trouble concluding that no copyright infringement has yet occurred," Anderson wrote in a dismissal order, speedily disposing of the case. Sager said "he took it off calendar and ruled on the papers."

Another case has had a longer life. Sager is lead counsel for Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg LP and The Associated Press in the successful effort to unseal squad car dash cam videotapes of a 2013 fatal police shooting in Gardena that had been the subject of a civil lawsuit against the city and its police department. The city settled the federal suit by paying victims $4.7 million but fought for months to keep the videos private. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of Los Angeles let Sager's clients intervene and granted her motion to unseal the tapes, which raised serious questions about police conduct when Ricardo Diaz Zeferino died.

The city appealed Wilson's ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing for a stay in an emergency motion that the circuit denied. They then appealed further, saying that the judge should have stayed his order rather than allowing the tapes' immediate release. "They claim the judge's failure to allow a stay of his order is capable of repetition and they want district judges to allow review of such orders," Sager said. "That would be a horrible precedent, to tie things up for months if officials decide to appeal." The case is briefed and awaits oral argument. Mendez v. The City of Gardena, 15-56090 (9th Cir., filed July 14, 2015).

— John Roemer