Stephen Michael Doniger

Mr. Doniger focuses on business disputes in general and intellectual property in particular, representing photographers, authors, fine artists, and clients in the marketing, fashion, entertainment, real estate and hospitality industries. He has been selected to the 2021 Southern California Super Lawyers List, an honor bestowed on only 5% of lawyers in Southern California, and selected as the exclusive copyright law expert and recommended attorney for California by Global Law Experts.

Over his 25 years of practice, Mr. Doniger has established an impressive litigation record, particularly in the handling of copyright and trademark disputes. Since his first trial as a sole practitioner in 1997 (One World Marketing v. MEK Int’l, BC 193556 – $550,000 trademark infringement / trade secret theft jury verdict), he has prevailed in every intellectual property lawsuit taken to trial, and has been lead trial counsel in many of the largest copyright verdicts in the Central District, including:

A.V.I.D., LLC v. Exist, Inc., Case No. 2:10-cv-09383 ($1,754,272 verdict)
Unicolors v. H&M Hennes Mauritz, LP., 2:16-cv-2322 ($817,920 verdict)
Desire LLC v. Manna Textile, et al., 2:16-cv-4295 ($480,000 verdict)
TMB III Movie, LLC v. PFG Entertainment, 2:13-cv-04949 ($460,000 verdict)
U.F.I. v. Lane Bryant, et al., 2:08-cv-6865 ($447,670 verdict)
EKB v. Target Corp., et al., 2:10-cv-3334 ($389,638 verdict)
He has also realized numerous six and seven figure settlements in his clients’ favor, including a $1.1 million day-of-trial settlement in Star Fabrics, Inc. v. Morex, Inc. et al., CV-10-7987, and a low seven-figure settlement in L.A. Printex Industries, Inc. v. William Carter Co., CV09-02449 (reached after a jury verdict for willful infringement in a bifurcated trial).

Mr. Doniger has successfully litigated cases in the courts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Nevada, and North Carolina, and he has overseen litigation in foreign jurisdictions including Canada and the United Kingdom through the firm’s network of local counsel. He has also successfully handled numerous state and federal appeals, most recently securing a win for his client in Malibu Textile v. H&M Hennes Mauritz, 17-99583 (9th Cir., April 24, 2019 published opinion).

Mr. Doniger currently serves as counsel for American Photographic Artists, and works with the Coalition of Visual Artists to, inter alia, advance the rights of artists through the promotion of legislative and other avenues. He has been a featured speaker on intellectual property topics for CSUSA, The California Lawyers Association, APA, California Lawyers for the Arts, USC’s Law School and Marshall School of Business, the Art Institute, and many other groups. He has been featured and quoted in many other articles on intellectual property and business topics, and has been retained as an expert witness in copyright infringement prosecution.

Mr. Doniger is also a graduate of the Straus Institute’s mediation training program, and has mediated cases both privately and for the Los Angeles Superior Court. When not helping clients, he can often be found teaching his young children about black holes, dark matter, and the many other things around us that lend perspective to the actual significance of our problems.