William F. Patry

William F. Patry (born January 1, 1950, in Niskayuna, New York) is an American lawyer specializing in copyright law. He studied at the San Francisco State University, where he obtained a B.A. in 1974 and an M.A. in 1976, and then at the University of Houston, where he graduated with a J.D. in 1980. He was admitted to the bar in Texas in 1981, in the District of Columbia in 2000, and in New York in 2001.^[1]

William F. Patry
Patry in October 2009
Born	(1950-01-01) January 1, 1950 (age 74) Niskayuna, New York, U.S.
Education	San Francisco State University (BA, MA) University of Houston (JD)
Occupation	Lawyer

Biography

Patry served as a copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives in the early 1990s, where he participated in the elaboration of the copyright provisions of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.^[2] Patry also worked as a policy planning advisor to the Register of Copyrights, and held a post as Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.^[3] He is also the author of an eight volume treatise on U.S. copyright law entitled Patry on Copyright.

On August 1, 2008, Patry announced the termination of his blog, giving as reasons both the unwillingness of too many people to treat it as the personal blog that it was and the sad state of copyright law.^[4]

In 2009 he published Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars,^[5] and temporarily resumed blogging in support of the book.

For 17 years he was senior copyright counsel at Google. As of 2024 he is a partner in the intellectual property practice of the Mayer Brown firm in New York City.^[6]

Selected bibliography

Books:

• Patry, William F. (March 1985). The fair use privilege in copyright law. ISBN 0-87179-451-9.
• Patry, William F. (1994). Copyright Law and Practice. ISBN 0-87179-854-9.
• Patry, William F.: Patry on Copyright, Thomson West (Westlaw), 2007.
• Patry, William (2009). Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. ISBN 978-0-19-538564-9.
• Patry, William (2011). How to Fix Copyright. ISBN 978-0-19-976009-1.

Papers:

• Patry, W. F.: The Failure of the American Copyright System: Protecting the Idle Rich, 72 Notre Dame L. Rev. 907 (May 1997).

See also

• Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.

References

1. N.N.: Firm Profile for Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP, LexisNexis/Martindale-Hubbell. URL last accessed 2007-09-11.
2. U.S. Copyright Office: Restoration of Certain Berne and WTO Works, 1995. URL last accessed 2007-09-11.
3. N.N.: around Campus, Cardozo LIFE, Fall 1998. URL last accessed 2007-09-11.
4. Patry, William (August 1, 2008). "End of the Blog". The Patry Copyright Blog. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
5. Patry, William (2009). Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538564-9. moral panics and the copyright wars.
6. "William Patry". Mayer Brown. Retrieved 2024-03-21.

External links

• Katz, A: Book review of Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, in International Free and Open Source Software Law Review 2010. URL last accessed 2011-9-10
• Lung, G.: Book review of Patry on Copyright, in WIPO Magazine 4/2007. WIPO, 2007. URL last accessed 2007-09-11.
• Copycense: The William Patry Interview; interview with William Patry, 2007. URL last accessed 2007-09-11.
• The Patry Copyright Blog

Lectures

• Crafting an Effective Copyright Law Society for Computers and Law (UK) Annual Lecture 2009 (24 March 2009) (mp3)
• Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars Intellectual Property Law Society, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, NYC (12 October 2009) (mp4, mp3)
• 2009 Frey Lecture in Intellectual Property Duke University (Oct 21 2009)