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Music Industry Attorney
Mr. Meyer began practicing law in Hawaii in 1979. His practice focuses exclusively on intellectual property law and includes transactional matters (such as music licensing and copyright and trademark licensing and registration) and dispute resolution (including copyright, trademark and patent infringement and unfair business practices litigation, mediation and arbitration).
Mr. Meyer represents a broad spectrum of creative individuals, scientists and businesses, both in Hawaii and on the mainland, including individual and corporate intellectual property owners, licensors and licensees, website owners and developers, artists, writers, photographers, television and film producers, designers, composers, ISPs, software developers, CGI artists, multimedia developers, publishers, advertisers, television, radio and Internet broadcasters, art gallery owners, art collectors, entertainers, recording artists, songwriters, musicians, record companies, producers, architects and merchandisers. Mr. Meyer's clients include many of Hawaii's top recording artists and record labels. Mr. Meyer is a lecturer in intellectual property at the Pacific New Media Workshop, University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Hawaii Music Institute at Windward Community College. Mr. Meyer serves as a court appointed mediator for the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii in connection with intellectual property cases. Mr. Meyer is past Chair of the Intellectual Property & Technology Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association, and a frequent speaker on intellectual property, music, e-commerce and Internet law topics, and has authored numerous articles and other materials on intellectual property law, including continuing legal education materials for the National Business Institute, Lorman Education Services and the Hawaii State Bar Association.
Mr. Meyer is active in community organizations dedicated to the promotion of literacy, culture and the arts and devotes time to a pro bono practice which assists artists with their legal problems. In April 2003, Mr. Meyer was recipient of the Hawaii Music Awards "Loyal Garner Award" for his contributions to Hawaii's music community. He is past president of the Windward Arts Council. Mr. Meyer has also assisted with various music and cultural events intended to showcase Hawaii's musical talent and spread the aloha of the people of the State of Hawaii such as the Synergy Hawaii Day event held in November 2001.
Mr. Meyer is a co-founder of the Hawaii Music Institute located at Windward Community College. The Hawai`i Music Institute seeks to nurture and inspire Hawaii's music talent and offers instruction about both the making and the business of music, as well as providing a showcase for sharing talent and information. The Hawaii Music Institute offers numerous courses covering everything from hula and slack key guitar to advice on performance, promotion and copyright law. Mr. Meyer teaches courses concerning the legal and business aspects of the music industry.
As an advocate of artists' rights, Mr. Meyer has led a number of legislative initiatives over the last several years to help promote the local entertainment industries. For example, in 1999, Mr. Meyer spearheaded the legislative initiative to include the performing arts industries within the definition of a "qualified high-tech business" under Hawaii's income tax incentive laws. Known as Act 297, this law, for the first time, provided tax benefits to local performing arts companies, including record labels.
In 2000, Mr. Meyer drafted additional legislation and led the legislative initiative to extend the investment tax credit benefits of Act 221 to the entertainment industries. In addition, Mr. Meyer drafted and spearheaded the drive to extend income tax benefits not only to the companies that own the copyrights to performing arts products such as sound recordings and films, but also to the individuals (musicians, vocalists, engineers, producers and film makers) that participate in the creation of performing arts products.
In June of 2001, Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono signed Act 221 into law at a celebration party organized by Mr. Meyer and held at Kapono's on the waterfront in Honolulu. In addition to the Act 221 signing ceremony, the event included a day-long concert featuring Hawaii's top recording artists. The event, known as the "Hawaii Digital Jam" was the first major musical event in Hawaii broadcast worldwide on the Internet. This event brought Hawaii's top recording talent and news about Hawaii's unique artist friendly legislation to an international audience.
In September of 2001, Mr. Meyer organized the "Aloha From Hawaii" memorial concert, the first major benefit concert in the United States for the victims of the 9/11 tragedy. The day-long event held at the Waikiki Shell raised monies for the widows and orphans of firefighters and police officers killed during the 9/11 tragedy and carried a message of aloha and solidarity from the people of Hawaii to the mainland and the rest of the world. The event was broadcast on the Internet by Pixelworld Networks.
Since the Mid 1990's, Mr. Meyer has worked with other members of the Hawaii music community to lobby for the creation of a Hawaiian music category as part of The Recording Academy's annual Grammy Awards. That goal became a reality in 2005 when the 47th annual Grammy Awards included the first-ever award for the best Hawaiian Album. Three of Mr. Meyer's clients were nominated for the award.
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