Carole E. Handler
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Carole Enid Handler is an American
lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
who specializes in
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
litigation in the areas of
trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
,
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
and
antitrust law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
s, particularly those related to
entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...
and
media industry Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit information e ...
. She is commonly known as the "lawyer who saved Spiderman."


Legal career

Handler's noteworthy achievement is a case considered to be a landmark case that was won on an ironic, yet relatively simple, but critical oversight. At issue were the sale of intellectual property rights to certain
Marvel Enterprises Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Enterprises) is an American entertainment company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, New York, formed by the merger of Marvel Entertainment Group and Toy Biz. The company is a wholly owned ...
characters that Marvel's new owners thought it bought with the company. The claim was successful because, although the purchaser of those rights had a valid signed contract with the former owners of Marvel, the actual new rights were never registered with the
United States Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...
. Handler's discovery of that fact, and her interpretation of IP law during the court proceedings, caused the rights to revert to Marvel, which was bought by
Avi Arad Avi Arad (; he, אבי ארד; born 1948) is an Israeli-American film producer who became the CEO of the company Toy Biz in the 1990s and soon afterward became the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, and the chairman, CEO, and founde ...
and
Ike Perlmutter Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter ( he, יצחק "אייק" פרלמוטר; born December 1, 1942) is an Israeli-American billionairehttps://www.forbes.com/profile/isaac-perlmutter businessman and financier. He is the chairman and former CEO of Marvel Enter ...
. Handler has been working with studios to develop a legal licensing system for digital video. Handler argues that the idea of
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
, created by
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
professor
Larry Lessig Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvar ...
, is an "interesting compromise" - allowing for protection for copyrightable interests of the video itself while also acknowledging that the technology being used that causes the video to be accessed online modifies the licensing arrangement. Aside from Handler's experience in motion picture and entertainment licensing, and she has worked with IP issues dealing with energy, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Among her antitrust work, Handler has represented the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
and several of the major motion picture studios defending them against "block booking" (When studios sell its films in bundles of 'all-or-nothing' packages; meaning that theaters were required to buy some of the studio's mediocre pictures along with the more salable ones). In 1998, Handler took on the case of
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
rescuer ( Righteous Gentile)
Irene Gut Opdyke Irene Gut Opdyke (born Irena Gut, 5 May 1922 – 17 May 2003) was a Polish nurse who gained international recognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II. She was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by ...
when Opdyke tried to re-gain the rights to tell the "authorized" account of her life story, which she had previously assigned in a lawful motion picture option agreement. Handler worked with the parties to reach an agreement and the case was dismissed with prejudice. In an ironic twist, after the trial, all parties agreed that the promoter did "nothing wrong." Opdyke publicly acknowledged the promoter who she sued by thanking him in her book, “In My Hands” and agreed to give him a producer credit for the eventual "authorized" motion picture about her life story. Handler has been a partner at
Kaye Scholer LLP Kaye Scholer was a law firm founded in 1917 by Benjamin Kaye and Jacob Scholer. The firm had more than 450 attorneys in nine offices located in the cities of Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, New York City (headquarters), Shanghai, Palo ...
., O'Donnell & Shaeffer LLP and
Thelen Reid & Priest LLP Thelen may refer to: People * A. J. Thelen (born 1986), retired American professional ice hockey defenseman * Albert Vigoleis Thelen (1903-1989), German author and translator * Dave Thelen (born 1936), former Canadian Football League running back ...
.


Academic career

Handler received her undergraduate degree from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
and her J.D. degree from the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
Law School in 1975. She then went on to achieve a master's degree in city planning from Penn, and also studied architecture at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.


Honors and awards

Handler was named one of the "Top 50 Women Litigators in California" by ''
Daily Journal Extra Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' in 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002. In 2001, and was named one of the "Lawyers of the Year" by ''
California Lawyer ''California Lawyer'' was a monthly legal magazine based in San Francisco, California.
''.


Personal life

She is the daughter of
Milton Handler Milton C. Handler (1903 – November 10, 1998) was an American lawyer and professor of law. He was considered a "leading antitrust expert and drafter of some of the nation's best-known laws." Early life and education Born in the Bronx in 1903, he ...
, who was a professor at Columbia Law School, and Marion Winter Kahn.


References


Further reading


CorpWatch.org "US: The Conservative Hand of Hollywood", by Justin Clark, March 29th, 2006
Handler on delivering movies to theaters via fiber optics

Handler on Internet speed regulations in Congress * ttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138959/news Cold SquadHandler, in 1998, on the Canadian TV Show ''Cold Squads similarities to CBS' ''Cold Case''
''DISNEY LOSES POOH BATTLE IN L.A. COURT''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
, 2/19/2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Handler, Carole E. Trademark attorneys Place of birth missing (living people) Copyright attorneys Antitrust lawyers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Harvard College alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni University of Southern California faculty American Jewish Congress American women lawyers Kaye Scholer partners MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni American women academics 21st-century American women