Tony Keats is a founding partner of the firm. He has held Intellectual Property practice leadership roles at BakerHostetler, Keats McFarland & Wilson, and Stubbs Alderton & Markiles.
Tony’s more than three-decade legal career has singularly focused on the development and protection of brands and creative content from consumer products to entertainment, from luxury goods to the internet. Since he commenced his practice, he has provided counsel and has litigated cases on behalf of many of the world’s largest consumer product and entertainment companies, as well as individual entrepreneurs, actors, and musicians. Tony’s litigation background also includes related commercial matters involving unfair competition, contract disputes, rights of publicity violations, business torts, domain name infringement, and idea submission claims.
Tony developed intellectual property protection programs for some of the most popular entertainment properties in Hollywood history. These have included among others, Universal Studio’s Jurassic Park, New Line Cinema’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Lucasfilm’s Star Wars, Warner Brothers’ Batman and Looney Tunes, and Saban Entertainment’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He has also represented various studios and production companies including Warner Bros., Fox, Universal, NBCUniversal (f/k/a DreamWorks SKG), Sony, Viacom, Paramount, Revolution, Mosaic Media Group, E! Entertainment, PlayTone, and Comedy Central.
His work on behalf of global apparel and luxury goods companies in the protection of their important brands has included work for US, French, and Italian haute couture fashion and fragrance labels from Polo Ralph Lauren and Kate Spade to Gucci and Versace. Tony was selected as a member of the College of Experts for the Paris-based French anticounterfeiting organization, Union des Fabricants, and is a member of the French intellectual property organization, APRAM.
Tony has represented Academy, Emmy, and Grammy winning performers in the film, television, and music industries in the protection of their brands as well as rights of publicity and privacy. The work has ranged from trademark protection and copyrights of artistic expression to efforts against internet cyber-squatters and unauthorized uses of names and likenesses in commercial settings.
Mediation of intellectual property and related commercial disputes has engaged Tony for more than two decades. Besides acting as a private mediator, he serves on the Attorney-Settlement Panel for the Federal District Court, as a member of the International Trademark Association’s Panel of Mediators, and the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Film and Media Panel of Neutrals.
Tony speaks and writes on a variety of intellectual property protection issues as well as working to enhance IP protection in state and federal legislation. He has appeared in numerous publications including Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, and theNational Law Journal, as well as on many television broadcasts focusing on anti-counterfeiting efforts. Tony is the co-author of the recent 2-volume business and legal treatise Protecting The Brand published by The Business Expert Press. In addition, Tony has co-authored the published book Protecting the Brand: Counterfeiting and Gray Markets for Law Journal Press. Tony was also a contributing author of the book Trademark Counterfeiting in the United States published by Aspen Press.
Tony’s background also includes work in the business sector, including his position as a brand manager of Inglenook Wines in San Francisco and Napa, California prior to attending law school.
Tony has received the AV (highest) Martindale-Hubbell rating of his peers in the legal community, as well as being named to the World Trademark Review’s Top Trademark Attorneys, and as a Superlawyer (2013-2022). He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Brown University and his law degree from the University of San Francisco. He is admitted to practice law in the State of California, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and United States Supreme Court.
When out of the office, Tony has mentored disabled LAUSD students through The Fulfillment Fund and served on the board of United Cerebral Palsy.
