Beth A. Fulkerson

Beth Fulkerson’s career has closely followed the development of the Internet – from deciding which traditional media laws applied to the first major e-commerce website launch to explaining to Congressmen why her client’s website has so many trackers. Her experience includes advising and assisting clients in all aspects of website and product launches, including name selection, consumer privacy disclosures, PCI compliance and copyright licensing.  Having managed various crises as in-house counsel, Beth enjoys training employees to prevent the next crisis. Recent work includes providing advice regarding privacy issues with connected devices (IoT or Internet of things), ownership of content published in private social media networks, and sharing of film shot from traffic helicopters.

Representative Experience and Transactions

• Beth has served as additional in-house counsel for established media companies and as soft intellectual property and privacy counsel for emerging companies.
• As CPO and AGC of Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, Beth negotiated software development agreements, audited privacy compliance by ad network partners, and drove software copyright litigation against client to voluntary dismissal by plaintiffs.
• As Senior Counsel for Tribune Media, she was responsible for all legal aspects of technology, software development, and online advertising agreements, and she wrote user-generated content guidelines, terms of use and privacy statements for all company websites.
• As owner of her own law practice, she stopped hundreds of Google keyword infringements, negotiated data licenses and content syndication deals, and advised the largest online bookstore on pricing and contests.
• At Pattishall McAuliffe, a respected IP boutique, Beth enforced trademark rights for high-profile Fortune 500 companies, represented Network Solutions, Inc. in successful litigation regarding the legal nature of domain names, and drove legal compliance of hard goods portion of largest commercial website launch to date.

Selected Presentations & Publications

• Mass Digitization, Section 108 and Orphan Works (Google Books and HathiTrust litigation) (America Intellectual Property Law Association Spring Meeting 2012)
• Copyright Misuse after Costco v. Omega (Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago 2012)
• Copyright Enforcement post-eBay v. Tiffany (AIPLA Winter Meeting 2011)
• Google Keyword Litigation Update (IPLAC 2010)
• U.S. Copyright Law (Practicing Law Institute 2008)
• Combatting Website Scraping (Chicago Bar Association 2003)

Interesting Facts
Beth is a former marathoner and someday she will achieve her competing goals of riding her bike across the U.S. and making her backyard garden the envy of Martha Stewart. Beth was working on a Ph.D. on Soviet threat perceptions when the Cold War ended.