Tara Aaron

Biography

Tara Aaron comes from nearly a dozen years of intellectual property transactional work, both before and after law school.  Her mother told her when she was 15 that she would be an IP lawyer.  Her mother, of course, was right. Her eight years of law practice have allowed her to help clients across multiple industries with licenses and disputes involving copyrights, trademarks, patents, domain names, software, and trade secrets.   She has advised major political campaigns on the use of copyrighted music, and helped a small Southeastern company sell its Bluetooth technology for millions. She has on multiple occasions successfully obtained hijacked domain names for the rightful owners, and regularly negotiates service and technology agreements against the largest telecommunications and software providers in the country.  She has prosecuted over 100 trademark applications during her practice. Recently, Tara settled a local company’s high-dollar dispute with a large software provider, saving the company nearly twenty percent on its annual bottom line.  Tara and the client both agree that it was a highlight for their respective businesses.  Although she loves to focus her work on Nashville clients that she can work with face-t0-face, she enjoys working with clients and colleagues around the world – since before law school she has worked with clients across Europe and Asia who own or are seeking U.S. IP rights.  Currently, she is a guest blogger for IPKat, a London-based intellectual property blog, and has recently finished co-authoring a chapter for an Oxford University Press law treatise comparing U.S. and European Union unfair competition and trademark law.   Tara got her first lessons in intellectual property law working for a law firm on Music Row managing the music catalogs of prominent twentieth century artists and administering synchronization, mechanical, and print licenses for their artists or their estates, and now she also represents music artists, managers, record labels, and promoters, helping them ensure that their contracts are clear and their rights are secure.

Tara’s goal at Aaron Sanders is to serve clients on their terms, not by the rules of big law firms, and to do it in a way that offers flexibility to lawyer and client alike. When Tara is not practicing law, she is practicing her vocal skills or her violin while her husband Mark plays guitar and her two basset hounds (Jake and Dudley) chime along, or she is planning the latest fantasy vacation (which she rarely actually takes). Tara is the immediate past chairperson for the Intellectual Property Section of the Nashville Bar Association and serves on the Board of Directors for Ten Thousand Villages of Nashville, Inc. a non-profit retail store in Green Hills selling fairly traded arts and crafts from artisans in the third world. Tara strongly recommends that you shop there on your next trip to Green Hills.  She can also generally be found at breakfast or happy hour with the ultra-cool Nashville geek scene. A complete list of her memberships and activities can be found below:

Resume

Education

• J.D., University of Tennessee, 2004
  Member, Order of the Coif
  Member, Law Review, 2002-2004
• B.A., cum laude, Vanderbilt University, 1997
• Semester Abroad, University College Cork (Cork, Ireland), 1996

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Speaker, “Put It in Writing: Why Good Contracts Matter for Software Developers and Their Clients”; Day Camp 4 Developers, March 2012
• Speaker, “An Introduction to SOPA,”  Tennessee Bar Association LawTech Day, February 2012
• “Appealing IP: Legal Issues Surrounding the Development of an App“; InForma IP Magazine, February 2012
• Moderator, “Could SOPA Break the Internet?”; Innovation Nashville, January 2012
• Music Copyright Law, by David Moser and Cheryl Slay; technical editor, December 2011
• “Trademarks and Copyrighted Content in Social Media“; Presented in Berlin, Germany , October 10, 2011
• “SpeakerUp!,” speaker how-to presentation for BarCamp Nashville, September 7, 2011
• “Leaving and Launching,” inaugural interview for EntreWoman, Nashville, Tennessee, June 21, 2011
• “Fair Use in a Content-Sharing World,” PodCamp Nashville, Tennessee, March 26, 2011.
• “What Entrepreneurs and Content Creators Need to Know About Business and Intellectual Property” Co-Labs Nashville, Tennessee, June 18, 2010
• “What Entrepreneurs and Content Creators Need to Know About Intellectual Property,”
  Social Media Club of Nashville, Tennessee, May 26, 2010
• “Providing Pro Bono Legal Services After a Disaster,” Webcast for TennBarU, May 12, 2010
• “Copyright Basics for Authors and Journalists,” American Society of Journalists and Authors, February 19, 2009
• “Copyright Basics for Artists,” Co-presenter, Tennessee Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, 2008, 2012
• Nashville Bar Association, IP Section, Presentation on Louis Vuitton Malletier v. Haute Diggity Dog, LLC (the “Chewy Vuiton case”), March 27, 2008
• “Broadcaster Performance Royalty Debate – ABA IP Section Committee Report,” ABA Forum on Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law, Committee on Broadcasting, Sound Recordings and Performing Artists, May 2008
• WKRN-TV interviews Tara Aaron regarding the Keith Urban trademark case, Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 8, 2007

Previous Affiliations

• Associate, Stites & Harbison PLLC, Nashville, Tennessee 2004-2011

Professional Activities

• Chair, Intellectual Property Section, Nashville Bar Association, 2011
• Chair, Social Media Committee, Copyright Society of the U.S.A., 2011
• Co-Chair, Southeastern Chapter, Copyright Society of the U.S.A, 2011
• Member, Executive Council, Tennessee Bar Association Sports and Entertainment Law Section
• Member, Nashville Bar Association
• Member, Lawyers Association for Women, International Trademark Association,
• Copyright Society of the South

Professional Licenses

• Tennessee