Telecom, Media and Technology

K&L Gates lawyers routinely counsel TMT clients on the full range of FCC, state utility commission, and regulatory requirements applicable to TMT businesses. We provide advice on regulatory issues ranging from seeking new or changing existing regulations, obtaining regulatory approval of mergers and acquisitions, applying for regulatory licenses or authorizations, and defending clients in regulatory enforcement matters.

In Greater China, we have successfully steered clients through the complex patchwork of laws and regulations governing the satellite communications and telecom industries, as well as content and programming matters. K&L Gates also serves on a select panel of consultants to Hong Kong’s Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) qualified to provide professional advice to the government on regulatory and public consultation matters.

Our lawyers handle complex mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing, corporate finance, and securities transactions, among others, before U.S. federal agencies, Congress, the executive branch, state governmental bodies, and European and other international regulatory bodies, for start-up companies, entrepreneurs, investment banks, Fortune 500 corporations, and European and Asian blue chip companies.

We support TMT businesses in all facets of their data services and Internet businesses, including advising on key strategic issues and relationships, helping to develop next generation broadband networks, drafting and negotiating new technology license and other distribution templates, and acquiring and distributing media content. We also have broad experience in the development and distribution of new devices in the wireless and software sectors.

Our TMT lawyers have been leaders in advancing TMT-related issues before the executive and legislative branches of government and the courts. Our firm has been recognized as one of the top law/lobbying firms in the United States and boasts one of the nation's largest federal policy practices. Our federal policy team works on a regular basis with various congressional committees, members of Congress, trade associations, coalitions, and think-tank groups that shape federal telecommunications law and policy.

Our lawyers were actively involved in the enactment and implementation of the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996, and continue to work on issues related to Telecom Act reform. On the deployment side, we provide strategic advice on wireless broadband infrastructure deployment policy in connection with the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Since 1966, our lawyers have engaged in a wide variety of trial and appellate litigation that has helped to shape the growth of the TMT sectors. We have extensive experience in all aspects of TMT litigation, including insurance coverage, consumer protection and consumer credit matters, class action defense, antitrust, deployment-related matters, and intercarrier disputes.

We regularly represent TMT clients before administrative agencies such as the FCC, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Department of Justice, and before state and local franchising authorities and state utility and public service commissions. Our longstanding tradition of leadership in complex litigation, combined with our technical experience and our cutting-edge electronic analysis and discovery group, enables us to handle patent litigation for industry clients large and small.

The firm’s TMT lawyers provide a full range of intellectual property advice to clients in the TMT sectors, including IP protection, counseling, licensing, and litigation for patents, copyrights, and trademarks. With dozens of licensed patent lawyers with technical degrees in fields including electrical, software, and mechanical engineering, our technical experience includes software, Internet and business methods, electrical circuitry, and telecommunication equipment. Our lawyers prepare and prosecute hundreds of patent applications per year both in the United States and the United Kingdom, and, through a network of foreign associates, internationally.

The firm has also helped clients to protect virtually every form of copyrightable work – literature, textbooks, manuals, computer software, music, sound recordings, video, film, television programs, photographs, toys, characters, architecture, and product designs – and we regularly advise clients regarding the acquisition, sale, and licensing of copyrighted works.

We have addressed the trademark needs of many clients in the TMT sector, from entertainment and media companies to telecommunications and computer hardware and software. We have ongoing trademark monitoring and enforcement programs in place for many of our clients, and we have prosecuted and defended litigation involving registered and unregistered trademarks and service marks, as well as a wide variety of trade dress claims.

The firm has significant experience obtaining the permits and approvals required for the deployment and operations of cross-border telecommunications facilities and has had extensive dealings with agencies at all levels and branches of government, including federal agencies, state departments of natural resources and environmental protection, coastal commissions, transportation, parks, and numerous local governmental entities, including city and county councils, zoning boards, and public works departments. We are also actively engaged in policy and legislative initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels designed to remove barriers to the deployment of telecommunications and broadband facilities.

Our TMT lawyers offer a full range of legal services in media law, including reviewing stories and programming before publication; defending defamation and invasion of privacy claims; obtaining access to public records, meetings, and courtrooms; advising on contests and sweepstakes; advising on FCC "indecency" compliance; and handling contract and advertising disputes. We also regularly advise and offer seminars to our clients on advertising and defamation law.

With offices located in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Russia, we assist TMT companies in complying with all aspects of the multi-level legislation and regulation within the dynamically growing European Union.

Of particular note, the German TMT team enjoys a strong reputation for developing commercially viable solutions to complex legal issues, and team partners are frequently recognized by JUVE, Legal 500, Best Lawyers, and Legal Success/Handelsblatt as leading practitioners in their fields. The team was recognized twice in 2009 – as “Law Firm of the Year for Media,” and as “Law Firm of the Year for Telecommunications” – by JUVE, one of the leading German legal handbooks.

K&L Gates is a recognized leader in securing insurance coverage for policyholder clients, including coverage for defense costs, settlements, and judgments. Among other services provided to TMT clients, K&L Gates evaluates the need for certain coverage such as media liability (for claims such as libel arising out of mobile content) and cyber coverage (for claims such as theft of data, denial of service, or disparagement), and develops claims-handling protocols as part of client risk management initiatives.

We have significant experience advising companies seeking to enter the U.S. market, including helping non-U.S. investors and third parties navigate the complex patchwork of laws and regulations governing foreign entry into the United States.

Recognizing that the process brings together political, legal, and regulatory sensitivities, the firm offers an integrated team approach to deals involving foreign investment in U.S. technology developers, telecom providers, and media companies. Our team combines significant substantive experience in the TMT industries, integrated with a D.C.-based policy practice that maintains key relationships in Congress, the administration, and relevant agencies. The ability to field an integrated team is critical to these types of projects, which have significant regulatory and political components.

Our lawyers in Greater China, collaborating with our lawyers in the United States, also advise Asian companies seeking to enter the U.S. telecom market, including helping non-U.S. investors navigate the laws and regulations governing foreign entry into the United States.