Kelli L. Sager

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Los Angeles

Media and entertainment litigation

For Sager, the stakes of an intellectual property case always extend beyond the matter itself. What happens when we assume that one creator's ownership over his or her work precludes anyone else from creating anything similar?

"Looking at my bookcase full of novels and biographies and creative works, half of them would be gone if you couldn't use facts and ideas that might appear in other works," said Sager, who represents defendants and plaintiffs in high profile media and entertainment cases.

A partner at Davis Wright Tremaine and the first woman to receive the Beverly Hills Bar Association Excellence in Advocacy Award in 2019, Sager, who has more than 30 years of litigation experience, has a practice spanning defamation, privacy, reporter's shield laws, idea submission claims, access, prior restraint, and copyright, trademark, and internet law.

The question of how far an intellectual property claim can credibly reach stands out in a copyright case Sager is involved in right now, Bertuccelli et al v. Universal City Studios LLC et al., 2:19-CV-1304 (E.D. La., filed Feb 12, 2019). New Orleans-based artist Jonathan Bertuccelli alleged in his complaint that Sager's clients, the filmmakers behind slasher movies "Happy Death Day" and "Happy Death Day 2U," unlawfully copied his artwork to create the movies' villains. The artwork in question is "King Cake Baby," a cartoonish baby figure that Bertuccelli allowed the New Orleans Pelicans to use as a mascot.

"There's only so many ways you can draw a baby face," Sager said, who noted she is currently in discovery and preparing summary judgment papers. "It would be interesting to see how the court deals with this issue."

But Sager can also understand the plaintiff's perspective, she said. "We represent creators too - our studio network clients, book authors are very protective of their works," Sager said.

"Copyright is a really interesting area for me because it's the only one where we're on both sides - the plaintiff's and defense side," she said, noting that Davis Wright Tremaine has a media and First Amendment practice. "Because of the work we do on the First Amendment side, it brings a different perspective to copyright cases that you might not get from someone who only does intellectual property cases."

"I tend to look at the broader free speech rights, and the need to be able to create and have free expression, in addition to the protections that the Copyright Act provides," Sager added. "I think sometimes that part gets lost in the discussion about intellectual property."

-- Jessica Mach