Eric P. Bergner

Profile

Representing top-tier companies in the entertainment, publishing and consumer electronics industries, Eric Bergner advises clients on strategies to monetize content across digital and traditional media platforms, including online, mobile, print and television. Eric is the leader of Manatt’s Digital and Technology Transactions business unit and has a practice that spans transactional work and issues relating to the protection of intellectual property on digital platforms, guiding clients through the development, production, licensing and distribution processes.

In addition to advising on all stages of digital content creation, Eric drafts agreements and counsels clients on legal issues involving software, technology and application development, and he has particularly deep experience with issues relating to computer systems implementation. His experience leading cutting-edge content distribution deals and major technology transactions uniquely qualifies Eric to advise and represent clients entering the metaverse and establishing their place in the Web3 ecosystem.

Eric also works with clients that produce live events, guiding them through drafting and negotiating agreements involving venue licensing, advertising and sponsorship sales, concession sales, and performances. He also counsels the television, motion picture and music industries on the sale and acquisition of formats, life stories, screenplays, music and other properties for use in audiovisual works. In this capacity, he negotiates and drafts talent and production contracts as well as domestic and international syndication and distribution deals.

For the advertising industry, Eric negotiates and drafts media buying and planning agreements, creative production agreements, custom and syndicated market research agreements, and barter agreements.

His experience with content distribution, advertising and technology makes Eric particularly adept in transactions relating to free ad-supported streaming television (FAST).

Eric leverages his application development and distribution experience in the video game industry as well. He has experience representing both developers and content and brand licensors in a variety of agreements, including a major U.S. sports league in several deals concerning the licensing of its intellectual property for video game use.

Eric also advises clients on the protection of their intellectual property assets and develops strategies to prevent the unauthorized use of their intellectual property, including by counseling clients with respect to domestic and international trademark prosecution.

Prior to joining Manatt, Eric was a partner at a New York-based law firm, where he chaired the intellectual property, entertainment and sports, internet/technology, promotions law, and advertising practices, and co-chaired the global outsourcing and procurement practice and the privacy and cybersecurity practice.

Speaking Engagements

Presenter, “Prospering and Protecting Yourself in the Metaverse: Key Considerations For a New Blockchain-based Reality,” ACC Southern California, July 26, 2022.

Moderator, “Licensing the Metaverse,” Digital Entertainment World, 2022.

Presenter, “Lights, Camera, Brands: Masters of Marketing Storytelling,” Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit, May 2017.

Presenter, “Back to Reality: Internet Law,” City Bar Center for Continuing Legal Education, December 2001.

Presenter, “‘I Love It. Do We Really Have to Clear It?’: The Use of Third-Party Copyrights and Trademarks in Online and Offline Advertising,” The 8th National Advanced Forum for Advertising Law, American Conference Institute, November 2001.

Presenter, “Beyond Domain Names: So, You Want to Be a New Media Lawyer?” City Bar Center for Continuing Legal Education, November 2000.

Presenter, “The Right of Publicity in the New Millennium,” Music Law & Business, CLE International, October 2000.

05.11.23

Manatt Represents FAST Studios’ Women’s Sports Network in National ...

Manatt Digital and Technology Transactions Partner Eric Bergner successfully represented FAST Studios’ Women’s Sports Network, a first-...
01.05.23

Manatt Continues Expanding Intellectual Property Capabilities With ...

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, is pleased to welcome Intellectual Property Protection & Enforcement Counsel Sherli Furst in New York. ...
09.07.22

Manatt Represents Francisco Partners in Majority Investment in Kobalt ...

A Manatt team led by Entertainment Leader Jordan Bromley and Partner Beau Stapleton advised Francisco Partners Management, a U.S.-headquartered ...
08.19.22

Manatt Represents Game Production Company Dark Burn Creative in ...

A Manatt team represented Dark Burn Creative, a premier video production company that crafts triple-A game trailers, in its acquisition by Trailer ...

06.07.23

As FAST Rises In Streaming, Content Sellers Will Have Better Deal ...

Manatt Digital and Technology Partner Eric Bergner wrote an article for The Hollywood Reporter on the continued emergence of free ad-supported ...

02.18.23

Generative AI is Here, Along With Critical Legal Implications

Manatt Entertainment Partner Nathaniel Bach, Digital and Technology Partner Eric Bergner and Entertainment Litigation Associate Andrea ...

07.28.20

B2B Companies Need to Realign in a B2C E-Commerce Economy

Manatt Digital and Technology partner Eric Bergner and associate Bea Hinton authored an article for Bloomberg Law on why business-to-business ...

04.22.20

What Does the Olympic Postponement Mean for Advertisers?

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing hundreds of millions of people to shelter in place across the world, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ...

07.26.22

Korn, Bergner, Moses to Speak on Metaverse at ACC Southern California ...

Manatt’s Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Leader Brian Korn, Digital and Technology Transactions Leader Eric Bergner, and Entertainment Counsel ...

05.05.22

The World Wide Web of Risk: Protecting Yourself in the Metaverse

Join an interdisciplinary panel of Manatt professionals for the third of a three-part webinar series on the metaverse and the dawn of the Web3 era. ...

04.07.22

Never ‘Met a Verse’ I Didn’t Like: Prospering and Capturing ...

Join an interdisciplinary panel of Manatt professionals for the second of a three-part webinar series on the metaverse and the dawn of the Web3 era. ...

03.03.22

What Is Web3?: Essentials of the Blockchain-based Internet Revolution

With the recent explosion of blockchain technology and major companies pivoting their business models to realize the promise of a metaverse, tech ...

Eric P. Bergner

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