Biography

Benjamin E. Marks is Head of Weil’s Intellectual Property & Media practice. His areas of concentration include copyright, trademark, misappropriation, music licensing, unfair competition, and First Amendment issues.
Mr. Marks has served as lead counsel in copyright, music licensing, misappropriation, and media law cases for clients such as Sirius XM, Pandora Media, Getty Images, S&P Global and its S&P Dow Jones Indices division, the Television Music License Committee, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and West Publishing, among others. For many years, he has represented the Association of American Publishers on a wide variety of matters, including those involving intellectual property, First Amendment, and antitrust issues, among others. Mr. Marks also frequently represents music users such as television stations, television networks, and web site operators in connection with the acquisition of, and litigation over, rights to publicly perform musical compositions and secondary liability for performances by others.
His recent experience includes:
- Obtaining summary judgment for Getty Images in a multi-billion dollar copyright infringement litigation brought by a photo agency and numerous individual photographers.
- Serving as lead trial counsel for Sirius XM and Pandora Media in a royalty rate-setting trial against the recorded music industry before the Copyright Royalty Board (Web V).
- Representing S&P Global in First Amendment litigation against the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) to defend S&P Global’s right to publish truthful, lawfully obtained information about FMG’s pricing practices.
- Serving as lead trial and appellate counsel for Pandora Media in a royalty rate-setting trial against the music publishing and songwriting industries in a pending proceeding before the Copyright Royalty Board (Phonorecords III).
- Representing the North American Concert Promoters Association in a copyright rate court proceeding against BMI and in music license dealings with ASCAP and SESAC.
- Representing Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company in trademark infringement and breach-of-contract litigation against Vanderbilt University.
- Securing a favorable trial ruling for Pandora Media in a royalty rate-setting trial against the recorded music industry, in which the Copyright Royalty Board issued a very favorable ruling for Pandora and other webcasters, impacting billions of dollars in royalty payments (Web IV).
- Representing the nation’s commercial local television broadcasters, under the purview of the Television Music License Committee, in their music license dealings with, and litigation against, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, including litigating copyright rate court proceedings against ASCAP and BMI and an antitrust class action against SESAC.
- Representing S&P Global and S&P Dow Jones Indices in federal and state court disputes concerning the unauthorized use of the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) as the basis of financial products, including most recently in obtaining a permanent injunction against the International Securities Exchange (ISE) and the Options Clearing Corporation to prevent their unlicensed offering of index options on the S&P 500 and DJIA.
- Obtaining summary judgment for West Publishing in a copyright infringement putative class action arising out of the publication of unlicensed materials on Westlaw on fair use and public policy grounds.
Mr. Marks has been widely recognized for his work. He is currently ranked as a leading lawyer for Intellectual Property: Trademark, Copyright and Trade Secrets and Media & Entertainment: Litigation by Chambers USA, where clients have praised him as a “fantastic attorney,” a “collaborative thinker,” and an “excellent writer” with “a very keen eye for which arguments are compelling.” Mr. Marks is also highly ranked in Copyright and in Media & Entertainment Litigation by Legal 500, where commentators have called him “excellent” and have noted that he is “practical and really knows his stuff.” In the 2020 and 2021 editions of Benchmark Litigation, he was recognized as a “Future Star.”
Mr. Marks was recently appointed as an Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law and serves on the Advisory Board of NYU’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy. He previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Mr. Marks has published numerous book chapters and articles on copyright, trademark, media and entertainment law and is a frequent speaker on those issues.
Mr. Marks graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his J.D. from New York University, where he served as an articles editor of the New York University Law Review.
Awards and Recognition, Speaking Engagements, Guides and Resources, Latest Thinking, Firm News & Announcements
Awards and Recognition
- Benjamin Marks Named a "Future Star" in New York Award Brief — Benchmark Litigation
- Benjamin Marks Named a "Leading" Lawyer for Intellectual Property: Trade Mark & Copyright in New York Award Brief — Chambers USA
- Benjamin Marks Named a "Leading" Lawyer for Media & Entertainment: Litigation in New York Award Brief — Chambers USA
- Benjamin Marks Named "Recommended" Lawyer for Trademarks: Litigation in the U.S. Award Brief — Legal 500 US
- Benjamin Marks Named "Recommended" Lawyer for Copyright in the U.S. Award Brief — Legal 500 US
Speaking Engagements
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Proving Good/Bad Faith and Intent
Speaker(s):
Benjamin E. Marks
May 17, 2019 — New York — Proving IP Conference, NYU Law’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy
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Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century: What Regulators Are Asking About Big Tech and What It Means for Publishers
Speaker(s):
Benjamin E. Marks
September 20, 2018 — New York — Association of American Publishers Annual General Meeting
Latest Thinking
- The Media and Entertainment Law Review: Preface and United States Chapter Publication — The Law Reviews — By Benjamin E. Marks — PDF — January 2021
- The Media and Entertainment Law Review: Preface and United States Chapter Publication — The Law Reviews — By Bruce Rich and Benjamin E. Marks — PDF — January 2020
- Litigation Trends 2019 Alert — By Weil’s Litigation Department — March 2019
- Litigation Trends 2018 Alert — By Weil’s Litigation Department — PDF — March 2018
- Clarifying Outer Bounds of Copyright Fair Use, Second Circuit Finds Video Monitoring Service Infringing Alert — Intellectual Property & Media — By Benjamin E. Marks and Erin M. James — PDF — March 02, 2018
Firm News & Announcements
- Weil Secures Legal Permanent Residence for a Syrian Antiquities Expert Firm Announcement — August 06, 2019
- Weil and NYSBA Task Force Deliver Report on Wrongful Convictions in New York State Firm Announcement — April 05, 2019