Kenneth Steinthal is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice in the firm’s San
Francisco office. He has more than 30 years of experience litigating matters in the
IP/media sector and several other industries, both in jury and bench trial settings, in the
U.S. federal and state court settings (including appellate proceedings), before copyright
tribunals in the United States and internationally (where he has earned “rights of audience”
to represent his clients), and before other arbitral bodies around the world.
Mr. Steinthal’s litigation and trial experience spans a number of industries and disciplines,
including: media, entertainment and sports; consumer class actions involving false
advertising and unfair business practices; antitrust litigation; real estate/hospitality industry
matters; and trade secret/fraud/unfair competition cases. He has particular experience in
litigating copyright infringement and antitrust/rate-setting claims in cases involving the
distribution of audio and audiovisual content via both traditional and new media (e.g.,
mobile and internet) distribution means; these engagements often have involved, inter alia:
the construction and application of provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(including statutory license and safe harbors thereunder); and federal court/copyright
tribunal proceedings in the United States and abroad establishing structures and rates for
the exploitation of musical works in both traditional (e.g., cable, satellite, broadcast) and
new media distribution environments.
Beyond his litigation experience, Mr. Steinthal also counsels clients on music and other IP
rights and licensing matters associated with clients engaged in wide-scale distribution of
audio and audiovisual media content of all forms. This practice has involved the
development of innovative licensing strategies in the traditional and new media space, and
includes the representation of major industry players and their industry associations
adverse to music collecting societies and related trade groups, both in the United States
and internationally.
Mr. Steinthal consistently has been selected for many years by Chambers USA and
Chambers Global as a leading lawyer in his practice areas. He also has been named or
recognized in numerous publications including: Super Lawyers; Northern California Super
Lawyers; the Legal 500 USA; the Hollywood Reporter (“Power Lawyers: Top 100 Outside
Counsel”); The Daily Journal (“Top 10 Copyright Lawyers”); and Law Dragon. He is a
frequent speaker at bar association and similar copyright programs/seminars on the
subject of music rights and copyright litigation issues, and is a former adjunct professor of
law at Fordham Law School.
Before joining King & Spalding, Mr. Steinthal spent 32 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges (in
New York and then Silicon Valley), where he was co-chair of the Firm’s IP/Media Group, and
3 years at Greenberg Traurig where he was the Managing Shareholder of its San Francisco
office.
Mr. Steinthal has led the defense of numerous copyright infringement and declaratory judgment lawsuits brought by music copyright owners (including record labels, music publishers and class actions brought by publisher members of ASCAP, BMI and HFA) against content distributors spanning traditional and new media distribution.
Beyond this short list of exemplars of matters that went to litigation, Mr. Steinthal has managed dozens of pre-litigation matters where content owners have threatened to bring lawsuits against content distributor clients, and successfully enabled clients to avoid litigation via the negotiation of favorable settlements and/or licenses.
Mr. Steinthal also has managed the defense and/or tried numerous federal court and Copyright Tribunal cases against ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the U.S., as well as against their “sister” organizations in the UK (i.e., MCPS/PRS) and Hong Kong (i.e., CASH). These cases have involved the resolution of significant legal issues (involving the interpretation of the Copyright Act in order to resolve whether certain activities require PRO licensing at all, antitrust issues associated with ASCAP/BMI/SESAC operations, etc.) as well as the establishment of rates and structures for feesetting in traditional and new media settings.