Sean Kane
Attorney
Kane & Associates LLC

Sean F. Kane is the founder of Kane & Associates LLC (f/k/a Drakeford & Kane LLC). He counsels clients in the interactive entertainment, video game, virtual world, social network, publishing, licensing, merchandising, sweepstakes and gaming industries. His clients are engaged in all sectors of these industries and he regularly advises them on various aspects of their enterprises, including negotiation of business agreements, management and protection of intellectual property rights, mergers and acquisitions. Additionally, he has substantial experience litigating complex business disputes in federal and state courts and in ADR forums throughout the country. These matters usually concerned either infringement issues or disputes over the contracts that licensed, assigned or otherwise dealt with intellectual property. In addition to his work in interactive entertainment, his practice has also included client representation in a broad range of other intellectual property transaction involving copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, trade secrets and publicity/privacy rights. While Mr. Kane has a special interest in interactive entertainment, he has represented clients engaged in various other entertainment, communications and consumer products business segments, such as music publishing, records, motion picture (feature and independent films) and television production and distribution, computer software and the Internet.

Mr. Kane has written more than 25 articles on legal topics relating primarily to intellectual property and entertainment issues. His most recent articles are as follows: “Virtual Judgment: Legal Implications of Online Gaming”, published by IEE Security & Privacy, Vol. 7, No. 3, May/June 2009; Contributing Chapter Author of “Virtual Property, Real Law”, for the book “Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds” published by BookSurge Publishing, August 2008; “Virtual Worlds, Real World Perils”, coauthored with Benjamin T. Duranske and published in Landslide: A Publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property, Vol. 1, Number 1 September 2008 and “Virtual World Industry Outlook 2008-2009” coauthored with Christian Renaud and published by Technology Intelligence Group, August 2008.

Mr. Kane is a frequent presenter on legal topics and has lectured at more than 40 speaking engagements in the past few years. His most recent topics are as follows: June 2009 “Current Legal Issues for Virtual Worlds”, speaking engagement at the State of Play Conference, New York Law School, New York, New York; June 2009 “Legal Issues in Virtual Worlds: Never Let Schooling Interfere with Your Education!” featured speaker at the Department of Defense’s Defense Acquisition University’s 5th Annual Innovations in e-Learning Symposium, Fairfax, Virginia; May 2009 “The Developing Law of Virtual Realities and Online Games”, speaking engagement at the Legal Frontiers in Digital Media Conference, Stanford University, Stanford, California; May 2009 “What the $%*# Does Digital Distribution Mean to Me?”, featured speaker at the Game Developers Conference Canada, Vancouver, Canada and May 2009 “Why Your Lawyer Should be Your Design Partner!”, featured speaker at the LOGIN Conference, Seattle, Washington. Additionally his frequent commentary on business and the law has appeared in various media outlets including: The Economist, New Scientist, BBC World News, CNN, New York Times, Reuters, MSNBC, BNA's Daily Tax Report, Tech News World and National Journal's Technology Daily.

Mr. Kane was a Co-Chair of the first Virtual Law Conference. Mr. Kane is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Science & Technology Law, where he is a Co-Chair of the Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games Committee, as well as a member of the Section of Intellectual Property Law, where he is a Co-Chair of the Securitization of Intellectual Property Section. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association IP Panel of Neutrals. Mr. Kane is also a member of the Board of Editors of the LJN publication, Internet Law & Strategy. Additionally, he is a Member of the International Game Developers Association (“IGDA”).

He earned his J.D. in 1998 from Fordham University School of Law, and his B.A. in 1995 from Villanova University.