Art & the Law with Stephen Slusher – May 14

Intellectual Property Law for Artists

Stephen Slusher

Saturday, May 14, 2016

10 am

Art and law often intersect. When can you incorporate an image by someone else into your work? What can (and should) you do if someone copies your work? What’s a derivative work? What rights do you have in an image once you’ve sold the actual piece of art? Should you think about copyright, trademark or patents? What’s the difference? We will address these and other issues, with the objectives of helping artists avoid legal conflicts and maximize economic potential.

We will also address issues of insurance.  How much should you insure your work for?  What’s the difference between insurance value and retail value?  Finally, we will discuss why an artist can’t deduct donated artwork on their taxes.

Stephen Slusher is a patent attorney and chief legal officer for a biotechnology company in central New Jersey. He lives in Trenton, and is Chair of the Ethics Board for the City of Trenton and a member of the board of Artworks Trenton Inc. He has been a practicing attorney for pushing 40 years, with experience in intellectual property matters involving artists, including representing artists in copyright infringement litigation as well as transactional matters such as licenses, sales agreements, gallery agreements and copyrights. He has taught art law classes both to practicing artists and craftspeople and to lawyers.