Attorneys

Eric C. Osterberg

Eric Osterberg is the founder of Osterberg LLC. Eric has litigated a wide range of cases in federal courts across the country on issues of concern to intellectual property owners and users including:

  • international and domestic copyright infringement
  • patent and design patent infringement
  • trade secret disputes
  • trademark and trade dress infringement
  • breaches of entertainment industry contracts
  • counterfeiting
  • false advertising

His clients include copyright, patent and trademark owners and users in a variety of industries, software providers and licensees, music publishers, songwriters, collective licensing societies, record companies, print publishers and authors, motion picture studios, television and motion picture producers, advertising agencies, Internet service and telecommunications providers, and clothing designers and manufacturers.  He has helped a number of those clients establish a social media presence and formulate policies relating to their use of social media.  His transactional expertise includes negotiating and drafting: trademark and copyright licenses for a wide range of uses; software licenses including for SaaS; and vendor agreements, particularly with respect to software and website development.

Eric serves as outside general counsel to several innovative businesses and helps a variety of new businesses identify which of their legal challenges and opportunities require immediate attention and which can be addressed later in the business cycle. In that capacity, he also helps businesses formulate privacy policies and terms of service for their websites, and evaluate IP, product liability and advertising risks with respect to the launch of new products.

Eric’s commercial litigation experience includes representing investor funds, directors and companies in lawsuits involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of federal and state regulations; representing insurance industry participants and regulators; and representing vendors and purchasers in cases involving failed computer systems.

Before Osterberg LLC

Eric began his career in New York City with his father in 1993 at the intellectual property boutique Abeles Clark Osterberg & Prager. Later, Eric worked in the New York City offices of two large firms where he continued focusing on intellectual property litigation, licensing and counseling. Eventually, he started his own firm in Stamford, CT before moving to Boston in 2014.

Beyond the Courtroom

Eric is a frequent lecturer and has published numerous articles on copyright law.  He is co-author of “Substantial Similarity In Copyright Law” (PLI 2003-2019), a treatise devoted to the analysis of the ways in which courts compare works in copyright infringement cases. He is part of the group that drafted the ABA model jury instructions for copyright infringement cases (published spring 2008).

Eric served a three-year term on the editorial board of the AIPLA Quarterly Journal. Eric and other members of the editorial board were responsible for selecting articles for the publication, which presents materials related to intellectual property matters.

Eric’s speaking engagements include appearances before the USPTO Global Intellectual Property Academy, Copyright Society of the U.S.A., Copyright Society of the South, Licensing Executives Society,  Boston Patent Law Association, Westchester/Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the New York State Bar Association and the Fairfield County Bar Association.

Honors and Awards

Bar Admissions

Connecticut
New York
Massachusetts

Court Admissions

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Seventh, Eighth and Federal Circuits
U.S. District Courts for the District of Connecticut, District of Massachusetts and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York

Education

J.D., Emory University, 1992
B.A., Northwestern University, 1988

Memberships and Professional Associations

The Copyright Society of the U.S.A
Boston Bar Association
INTA– Lefkowitz Moot Court Committee Brief Judge 2011-2012, Courts & Tribunals Subcommittee 2008-2009, Anti Counterfeiting and Enforcement North America Subcommittee 2006-2007

Selected Cases

Creazioni Artistiche Musicali v. Carlin Am., Inc., No.17-266-cv, 747 Fed. Appx. 3 (2d Cir. Aug. 23, 2018).
Global NAPs, Inc. v. Verizon New England Inc., 603 F.3d 71 (1st Cir. 2010).
Phillips Bev. Co. v. Belvedere, S.A., 204 F.3d 805 (8th Cir. 2000).
Sanga Music, Inc. v. EMI Blackwood Music, Inc., 55 F.3d 756 (2d Cir. 1995).
Neopost USA, Inc. v. McCabe, 2011 WL 4368447 (D. Conn. Sept. 19, 2011).
SpendingMoney LLC v. American Express Co., 2011 WL 2909213 (D. Conn. July 18, 2011).
Ohio Bell Tel. Co., Inc. v. Global Naps Ohio, Inc., 540 F. Supp. 2d 914 (S.D. Ohio 2008).
Illinois Bell Telephone Co., Inc. v. Global Naps Illinois, Inc., 2007 WL 4531790 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 17, 2007).
J Giordano Securities LLC v. MedicalCV, Inc., 2006 WL 3000461 (D. Conn. Oct. 19, 2006).
Agilent Technologies, Inc. v. Micromuse, Inc., 316 F. Supp. 2d 322 (E. D. Va. 2004).
Hayes v. Carlin America, Inc., 168 F. Supp. 2d 154 (S.D.N.Y. 2001).
Ediciones Quiroga, S.L. v. Fall River Music, Inc., 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19039 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 4, 1998).

Publications

Substantial Similarity in Copyright Law with Robert Osterberg, treatise with annual updates published by the Practising Law Institute, 2003-2017.
AIPLA Model Patent Jury Instructions, 2015.
Copyright Infringement: Analyzing Substantial Similarity, Practical Law Company, 2013-2016.
Copyright and Contract Law on the Internet, Connecticut Law Tribune April 20, 2015.
Copyright Fair Use Uncertainty Continues, Should Copyright Litigants Be Forum Shopping?, Connecticut Law Tribune October 20, 2014.
Injunctions, Sunset Royalties And Future Royalty Rates, Connecticut Law Tribune October 5, 2012
Model Jury Instructions: Copyright, Trademark and Trade Dress Litigation, ABA Publishing (2008).
Potential New Hazards for Patent Licensors, Connecticut Law Tribune Intellectual Property Supplement, April 2007.
Should Sound Recordings Really Be Treated Differently Than Other Copyrighted Works? The Illogic Of Bridgeport v. Dimension Films, 53 J. Copyright Soc’y U.S.A. 619, Spring 2006-Summer 2006.
Secondary Liability after MGM v. Grokster, Metropolitan Corporate Counsel Vo. 13 No. 9, Sept. 2005.
How to Evaluate Copyright Infringement Claims Involving Computer Programs: An Explanation of the Abstraction/Filtration/Comparison Test, Journal of Internet Law, Vol. 8 No. 4, Oct. 2004.
A Primer on IP Insurance Options, The Intellectual Property Strategist, Vol. 10 No. 9, June 2004.
Copyright Infringement of Computer Programs, IP Litigation Quarterly, June 2004.
A Primer on Intellectual Property Risk Management and Insurance, published in Les Nouvelles (June 2003), republished in The Licensing Journal Vol. 23 No. 10 (November/December 2003).
What Napster Means for Copyright Infringement Litigation originally published in the Spring 2001 ABA IPL Newsletter, republished in the March 2002 issue of the ABA publication GP Solo titled “The Best Articles Published by the ABA.”
Insurance and Management of Intellectual Property Risks, with Melvin Simensky, 16 Entertainment and Sports Lawyer No. 2 at 3 (Summer 1998), republished in 17 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal No. 2 at 321 (Spring 1999).
Insurance and Management of Intellectual Property Risks, with Melvin Simensky, chapter in Intellectual Property in the Global Marketplace (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1999).
The Management of Intellectual Property Risks, with Melvin Simensky, chapter in Handbook of Business Strategy (Faulkner & Gray 1999).

Volunteer

Northwestern University Alumni Admission Council 2006-Present.
Boston Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts 2015-Present.
Town of Wilton, CT Water Pollution Control Authority 2013-2014.
Town of Wilton Planning and Zoning Commission 2007-2010.
Town of Wilton Committee on Elderly Tax Relief 2007.