Tom Rubin, Chief IP Strategy Counsel at Microsoft, to Discuss Copyright on November 11

Tom Rubin, Chief Intellectual Property Strategy Counsel at Microsoft, will deliver an address titled “Achieving Copyright at the Speed of Light” on Monday, November 11, at 12 pm in Room 129 at Yale Law School. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by The Information Society Project, The Lillian Goldman Law Library and the Yale Library Associates.

Rubin believes that we need a copyright system that operates at the scale and speed of our networked world, enabling a freer flow of information between people and across devices. In his talk, he will explain how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) notice-and-takedown regime has provided a workable framework for managing online copyright infringement. He will also discuss the biggest upcoming digital copyright issues – many of which are not what people expect.

Rubin is Chief Intellectual Property Strategy Counsel at Microsoft, where he leads the copyright, trademark and trade secret group. He spearheads complex product development, licensing, marketing, enforcement and global policy strategies across Microsoft’s business divisions. He has also led several collaborative efforts with leaders in the technology and content industries, including product partnerships, policy initiatives, amicus briefs and the landmark User Generated Content Principles.

At Microsoft since 1998, Rubin has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and addressed innovation and intellectual property issues before many government and industry forums in the U.S. and throughout Asia and Europe. He has taught seminars at Stanford Law School and Yale College, and he has guest lectured at Harvard, Berkeley, Seoul National University, and elsewhere.

A graduate of Yale College and Stanford Law School, Rubin was one of the country’s first prosecutors of computer, electronic, and intellectual property crimes as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. At the beginning of his legal career, he clerked for Judge Leonard B. Sand (S.D.N.Y.) and Chief Judge James L. Oakes (2d Cir.) before working at Debevoise & Plimpton, where he represented companies such as Sony and Time Inc. on matters related to new technologies and media law. Prior to law school, he worked in the newsroom at The New York Times and was a stringer for the Associated Press.