Virginia Anne Sanderson

Ginny’s practice is split between advisory work and litigation. Her transactional clients include e-commerce merchants, advertising networks, publishers, mobile app and game developers, SaaS providers, content managers and nutraceutical companies among others. She advises them on a range of contractual and intellectual property issues including copyright and trademark registration, vendor agreements, merchant processing, licensing agreements, website disclosures, advertising regulations, and FTC and FDA compliance. Ginny also specializes in issues specific to the online marketplace industry by advising clients who maintain storefronts on Amazon Marketplace, Sears Marketplace, Walmart Marketplace and others. 

Ginny’s litigation practice focuses on a variety of commercial matters, including copyright, trademark, trade secret and defamation claims. Her interest in intellectual property and technology law traces back to her creative and technical background in the motion picture industry.

Ginny represents technology companies in obtaining and enforcing intellectual property rights as well as defending against such claims. Her experience extends to all aspects of litigation, including extensive motion practice before state and federal courts, complex discovery, arbitration, trial and appeal. She has helped clients develop successful offensive and defensive litigation strategies, as well as defended several class actions. 

Ginny obtained her J.D. from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in 2005, where she served as the Executive Editor of the BYU Law Review. Ginny also received a B.A. in film studies from BYU in 1998 and, before returning to law school, worked on the technical end of film and television production. Before joining Kronenberger Rosenfeld, Ginny worked in Los Angeles, where her practice focused on sports and entertainment law. She is a member of the State Bar of California.

Representative Cases

·         Represented a large South American financial institution whose proprietary documents were anonymously posted online by a suspected disgruntled employee. Obtained a temporary restraining order and conducted early discovery through the California Courts, which enabled the client to identify the perpetrators and continue prosecution in its home country.

·         Represented a major advertising network in a trade secret dispute with former employees who formed a competing network, which was resolved through settlement and consent judgment in client’s favor. 

·         Represented a nutraceuticals merchant in dispute with a Florida payment processor who held more than $2 million of client’s funds in reserve and refused to release them. Defeated processor’s motion to dismiss the complaint, resulting in favorable ruling by the Middle District of Florida that, despite contractual terms favoring the processor, the processor did not have unbridled discretion to hold the funds in reserve indefinitely.

·         Defended an Internet advertiser client against Southern Home Improvement Company in a case concerning state and federal unfair competition claims. Resolved case early through favorable settlement that required no monetary payment from client. 

·         Requested and obtained maximum statutory damages ($150,000) in default judgment against administrator of a website notorious for providing high-resolution scans of copyrighted images.  Defeated potential DMCA defense raised by the court when the court adopted the firm’s theory that the only plausible uses for high-res scans constituted willful infringement.

·         Represented a producer of television advertisements for attorneys in copyright infringement lawsuit against a law firm that had copied client’s video advertisements nearly frame-by-frame.  After filing of complaint, the firm negotiated a quick and favorable settlement of the case.

·         Represented a social networking app developer backed by more than $350 million in venture financing in a TCPA class action lawsuit. Obtained speedy settlement and voluntary dismissal of putative TCPA class action against client, after early discovery and independent research by the firm that demonstrated that the SMS text message at issue was initiated by the plaintiff’s acquaintance, not the client. 

·         Defeated motion for class certification in hotly-contested, multi-million dollar consumer class action against Internet advertiser by using arguments made by plaintiff in refusing to arbitrate—namely, that the version of the website plaintiff viewed did not contain certain disclosures—against him to demonstrate that plaintiff could not establish the requisite commonality or typicality.  The case was resolved shortly thereafter through voluntary dismissal by plaintiff and no payment by the client.