Jonathan Band received a B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1982 from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1985. From 1985 to 2005, Mr. Band worked at the Washington, D.C., office of Morrison & Foerster LLP, including thirteen years as a partner. Mr. Band established his own law firm in May, 2005. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and California and before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Federal, and District of Columbia Circuits.

Practice Description

Mr. Band helps shape the laws governing intellectual property and the Internet through a combination of legislative and appellate advocacy. He has represented clients with respect to the drafting of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA); database protection legislation; the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act; and other federal and state statutes relating to copyrights, counterfeiting, privacy, spam, spyware, cybersecurity, gambling, and indecency. He complements this legislative advocacy by filing amicus briefs in significant cases related to these provisions.

Mr. Band’s policy practice has an international dimension as well. He has worked on the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Treaty; the Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Convention and Hate Speech Protocol; the Hague Convention on Exclusive Choice of Court Agreements; and several free trade agreements. He also has submitted comments concerning the revision of intellectual property laws in countries as diverse as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Korea, and Israel.

Mr. Band’s deep substantive knowledge of the application of intellectual property law to information technology permits him to counsel clients on the scope of copyright protection for computer programs; secondary liability and the DMCA’s safe harbors for Internet service providers; the DMCA’s prohibition on the circumvention of access and copy control technology; the protection of online databases; the fair use status of digitization projects; and other complex intellectual property issues.

Additionally, Mr. Band's clients include Internet companies, providers of information technology, universities, and library associations. Mr. Band has represented parties-in-chief in appellate litigation. See, e.g., Gates Rubber Co. v. Bando Chemical, Inc., 9 F.3d 823 (10th Cir. 1993). His administrative litigation experience includes representing the City and County of San Francisco in noise matters before the Federal Aviation Administration, and the State of Alaska in a matter relating to the Exxon Valdez oil spill before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Professional Activities

Mr. Band has written extensively on intellectual property and electronic commerce matters, including the book Interfaces on Trial: Intellectual Property and Interoperability in the Global Software Industry and over 60 articles.

Mr. Band frequently makes presentations on intellectual property and electronic commerce issues before trade and professional associations, advocacy organizations, and government bodies. Some of these presentations have been broadcast on C-SPAN and other cable and Internet networks.

Mr. Band is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course on the intellectual property legislative process. Additionally, Mr. Band has been a guest lecturer on intellectual property topics at numerous law schools, including Yale and Columbia.

Mr. Band has been quoted as an authority on intellectual property and Internet matters in numerous publications, including Clarin Information (Argentina), Asahi Shimbun (Japan), Nikkei Electronics (Japan), The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Forbes, Business Week, National Journal, The Boston Globe, The Houston Chronicle, The Houston Press, The San Francisco Examiner, Village Voice, Reuters Financial Report, National Law Journal, New York Observer, Fulton County Daily Report, Institutional Investor, San Francisco Recorder, San Francisco Daily Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, PC World Online, Selling, MSNBC Home, New Jersey Star Ledger, Associated Press, Communications Daily, CQ Daily Monitor, Technology Daily, Internet World, ZDNet, Report on Electronic Commerce, Electronic Commerce News, interactive week, TechnoLaw Roundtable, Washington Technology, Information Law Alert, webreview.com, Inside Technology Training, Netsbytes, Law Journal Extra, C/NET, Daily Fix, Globes, CNNfn, Skali, Chronicle of Higher Education, Wired News, Tech Capital, EPRI on the Internet, developer.com, Lawcast, Boardwatch, Business 2.0, Washington Business Journal, Silicon Alley Daily.Com and Washington Legal Times. Additionally, he has been interviewed on National Public Radio and CNN.

Mr. Band was a trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. and is on the Editorial Board of The Computer and Internet Lawyer. He has chaired the intellectual property committee of the ABA’s Administrative Law Section; the Copyright Protection Subcommittee of the Computer Programs Committee of the ABA’s Intellectual Property Law Section; the Legal and Policy Issues Task Group of the Interactive Multimedia Association; and the National Information Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Copyright Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He is a member of the District of Columbia, California, and American bar associations, as well as of the AIPLA and the Computer Law Association.

Pro Bono Activities

Mr. Band received the first Community Service Award of the International Section of the District of Columbia Bar in recognition of his pro bono work on the U.N. Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. He also has been honored for his pro bono work in the immigration area by the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. Additionally, Mr. Band was part of the legal team that secured a Presidential Pardon for Freddie Meeks, one of the survivors of the Port Chicago disaster.

Personal Information

Mr. Band was born in Los Angeles, California. He is married to Leesa Fields, and has two children -- Jeremy and Jessica. He lives in Rockville, Maryland.