Latham Litigator Named Intellectual Property Trailblazer

The National Law Journal (NLJ) has recognized litigation partner Perry Viscounty in its annual “Intellectual Property Trailblazers” report, which features lawyers who “continue to make their mark in various aspects of legal work in the areas of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secrets law,” according to the NLJ.

Viscounty was honored for his career achievements in his published profile, particularly a trilogy of cases for the popular web listing service craigslist that revolve around who owns big data on publicly accessible sites. Viscounty explained how his team and craigslist “came up with a unique legal strategy – when users post something on our sites, they have the option to assign the copyright to us,” which has helped curtail the illegal practice known as web scraping.

Viscounty also noted how the internet of things will continue to grow as an important intellectual property arena. “Everything is connected and big data is being collected. It’s super-valuable, and companies need to protect this data,” he told the NLJ.

Viscounty is a former Global Chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice, and he currently leads its Trademark Litigation group.

Latham partners who were previously named Intellectual Property Trailblazers include Bob Steinberg and Matthew Moore.