Kelly M. Klaus

Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP partner Kelly Klaus is one of the country’s leading copyright litigators, whose practice runs the gamut of entertainment litigation, software licensing and other intellectual property issues, particularly in the media and entertainment industries.

He is a go-to lawyer for the major motion picture studios and handles their most challenging copyright and entertainment-related disputes.

Among other cases, Klaus is lead counsel for Universal City Studios in a putative class action that alleges false advertising and other claims based on a trailer for the motion picture “Yesterday.” Conor Woulfe et al. v. Universal City Studios LLC, 2:22-cv-00459-SVW, (C.D. Calif., filed Jan. 21, 2022).

“Yesterday” explores the concept of what the world would be like if The Beatles had never come to fame, but somebody else knew and performed all their music. While the movie itself received mixed reviews, it was the trailer that caused the controversy. Two individuals filed suit, claiming they were deceived by a trailer, a portion of which included images of the actress Ana de Armas and a play on words based on The Beatles song, “Something.” Universal’s briefing said the Yesterday trailer, like most movie trailers, was created before the movie was finally edited. Neither de Armas nor the “Something”-joke scene were ultimately in the final version of the movie. The plaintiffs claim they paid $3.99 to watch the movie on Amazon Prime but would not have done so had they known de Armas and the scene were not in it.

The case has been going on for more than a year. Klaus and his team filed an anti-SLAPP motion and a motion to dismiss, which Judge Stephen Wilson granted in part. Last fall, Judge Wilson directed the plaintiffs to file a motion for class certification. The class certification motion is fully briefed and remains pending.

Klaus said it was simply by chance that he fell into the practice that he had mastered.

“When I was in law school, I was fortunate to take copyright law with Professor Paul Goldstein who wrote the casebook and published a treatise on copyright law,” Klaus said. “It was really one of those situations where I took the class, and I thought this is what I want to be doing with my career. I can’t imagine a better thing to do than to practice in the copyright arena. So, I did that, and I’ve been very lucky over the course of my practice.”

—Douglas Saunders