Licensing (General) Expert Witnesses: 3

William (Ned) McLeod, Esq., has been a party to many Licensing Arrangements as an attorney specializing in Intellectual Property in the Entertainment Industry (“IP”), both on the licensor and the licensee side of the table, in different matters from hard media historical archives to blockchain based creations, and, as a non-attorney producer, both as owner / licensor and, alternately, as user / licensee.

As an entertainment attorney for more than 30 years, Mr. McLeod has personally negotiated hundreds of licenses, and reviewed and evaluated hundreds more. He has studied or taught over 400 hours of Continuing Legal education courses, from historical copyright status analysis to blockchain mechanisms, dissecting project content as different as movie scripts and royalty contracts. Mr. McLeod has designed a college course curriculum for international university students entering the resort and theme park entertainment fields. His handling of licenses have covered a broad scope of venues and clientele, including:

The Rockefeller Center (NYC), the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and The Navy Pier (IL), the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (TX, with 8 associated museums), Graceland (TN), Niagara Falls (NY), The Smithsonian, the Kennedy Space Center (FL), Port of Los Angeles (CA), National Harbor (DC), Leadership Conference of Women Religious (“Catholic Sisters,” MD), the Tupperware Center (FL), Gatorland (FL), the Orlando Ballet (FL), Bob Ross (painter), Cousteau family ventures, 7 years of the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade (live and televised), and others.

Areas of Expertise:

Litigation Support - In Ned McLeod's 40 year capacity as producer, consultant, or attorney, he has negotiated, constructed, analyzed, attacked, or defended hundreds of business entertainment contracts, licenses, and litigation claims; and served as either consultant or expert witness on such matters.

As counsel (or, on occasion for a personal project, as producer), Mr. McLeod has obtained and operated licenses regarding Content, Properties, Brands, Venues, Likeness, Life Story, etc.) from Universal Music, Walt Disney Company, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, SONY, the Getty Images, Warner Bros. Music, TED Talks, Discovery Channel, ABC News, The Cousteau Society, Ford Motor Company, the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Collection, National Geographic, Jerry Lewis Films, The Beach Boys, Irving Berlin Music, Estate of Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Petty, Random House Books, Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, the United States Air Force, NASA, Estate of Yuri Gagarin, Arkham House Books, and others.

Mr. McLeod has been the expert consultant and reviewer for licensing documents litigated against major industry icons SONY Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, National Enquirer, Mad Magazine, and others involving the review of thousands of pages of licenses from domestic and international records. In songs alone, Mr. McLeod has licensed hundreds regarding films, musicals, and film clips.  

View Ned McLeod's Consulting Profile.

Attorney, Antonio R. Sarabia II, has 30 years of experience in Consumer Licensing matters (revenue, standards, performance, and breaches), Trademarks, Copyrights, and issues occurring in the Apparel Industry. 

Background Experience - Mr. Sarabia is intimately familiar with the business problems and legal issues fashion companies may face. At the beginning of his apparel industry experience, Mr. Sarabia spent nine years as part of the senior management of Guess?, whose sales grew 400% during a single year. Over the course of his time there, the company transformed from a fad into a mainstay fashion company. Since leaving Guess?, Mr. Sarabia has advised various other apparel companies, from publicly-held companies to fast-growing companies like Earl Jean, to smaller start-up companies. .

Litigation Support - Mr. Sarabia is available to serve as an expert witness, whether through testifying, identifying important or relevant issues, or suggesting discovery in his areas of expertise. His services are available to attorneys for plaintiff and defendant.

Areas of Expertise:

• Licensing: revenue projections, forecasts, standards, performance, breach, selection of licensees, damages
• Intellectual Property: analysis, due diligence, investigations;
• Copyrights:  substantial similarity, originality
• Trademarks: secondary meaning, infringement, dilution, searches, investigations, due diligence, theft, trade dress, counterfeiting, rebuttal on damages
• Apparel Business: contracts, manufacturing (local, abroad), import, export, sales, distribution, apparel copyrights, substantial similarity of apparel lines, theft and protection of designs, rebuttal on damages
• Design Patents: defenses based on lack on originality, identify and analyze obviousness and prior art
• Attorney Malpractice: standards of practice for apparel business lawyers, intellectual property lawyers, and licensing lawyers

Donald A. Jasko, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Economics, is an attorney by training. He has for many years focused his energies on the Economic, Technological, and Legal issues involved in the Publishing and Licensing of Creative Content.

Mr. Jasko served in various management positions at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in which he was instrumental in transforming the process by which performance rights in musical compositions are licensed for television broadcast. He was a key participant in the complex music industry negotiations that culminated in the new "per program" license, as well as the development of the process by which music performance and pricing data are exchanged electronically between television broadcasters and performing rights organizations.

After a 16-year career with ASCAP, Mr. Jasko resigned from ASCAP to found Digital Economics. He then became a major catalyst in the merger of Solana Technology Development Corporation with Aris Technologies, creating Verance Corporation. He joined Verance with key product development, business affairs, marketing and sales responsibilities. He also played a key role in forging international joint ventures.

After nearly two years of service in Verance management, Mr. Jasko returned to the leadership of Digital Economics. As Chief Executive Officer, he provides publishing administration, license administration and product development services to Digital Economics' clients.

Litigation Support - Mr. Jasko serves as a strategist and expert witness in litigation involving best practices in publishing and licensing administration, and the monetization of creative content, catalog valuation, and technology strategy and implementation as they relate to content metadata and content identification.

Areas of Expertise:

• Publishing and licensing creative content, including musical compositions, master recordings, digital sound recordings, photography and art;
• Monetizing public performances of musical compositions and digital sound recordings, and the creative content of writers, directors, actors, and musicians;
• Developing, deploying and monetizing databases of content metadata associated with programming, advertising and editorial;
• Using ratings data to monetize programming, advertising, and the creative content incorporated therein.; and
• Developing, deploying and using digital fingerprint and watermark technologies to monetize public performances of programming, advertising, and the creative content incorporated therein.

View Digital Economics' Consulting Profile.