Charles F. Morgan, Esq.
Frank’s practice is concentrated in the areas of trademark, copyright, business and entertainment law. He represents clients in a variety of business and intellectual property matters involving licensing, employment, trademark clearance and registration, technology, the Internet, copyright and trademark infringement and fair use. In the entertainment business, Frank’s clients include musical artists, songwriters and producers, recording studios, filmmakers, authors, television and movie actors, managers and agents. He negotiates, drafts and reviews agreements for his clients such as artist recording, distribution, production and licensing agreements, music and book publishing agreements, sync and master use agreements, personal management agreements, content and rights licensing agreements, talent agreements, releases, rights clearance agreements and celebrity endorsement contracts.
Frank’s clients include artists who have won and been nominated for Grammy® awards, artists with songs ranked on national charts, a New York Times best-selling author, prize-winning filmmakers distributed by Netflix and world class Olympic and professional athletes in a variety of matters pertaining to their careers. For example, he negotiated a contract for a client’s music to play over the opening credits of the film “Juno” that went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film received several other Oscar nominations including for Best Picture. The soundtrack album, which included the client’s song, went to #1 on the Billboard charts and won a Grammy® award in 2009. Frank represents a client who was nominated for a Grammy® award for Best Musical Album for Children in 2010, and a client who was a contributor on the Grammy® award-winning children’s album “All About Bullies…Big and Small” in 2012. He represents a musical artist whose albums typically rank in the Top 20 on the Americana Music charts, artists whose music is heard on the soundtrack of the 2017 Oscar-nominated X-Men film “Logan” and on the soundtrack of the 2019 Oscar-nominated film “BlacKkKlansman” and artists whose songs and recordings have been synched with commercials seen around the world.
Frank graduated from Washington & Lee University and the University of Maryland School of Law. He has been admitted to practice before the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Frank has represented clients in litigation involving trademark and copyright infringement, rights of publicity, a dispute arising from the break-up of a Celtic band and a dispute in Mississippi involving the estate of Mississippi John Hurt. He argued successfully before the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of the plaintiff in a federal civil rights case.
Frank has taught classes in intellectual property, entertainment and contract law at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the University of Baltimore School of Law and the Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers. Frank has presented at the Children’s Music Network 2019 International Conference in Phoenix and the Baltimore Jazz Alliance Conference 2019 and was scheduled to present at the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society Summit in 2020 before it was postponed due to Covid. He has been a member of the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts since 1991, and served on the board of directors of the Baltimore Theater Project for many years. Frank has been awarded an AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating by Reed Elsevier Properties, Inc. in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. He was named by The Best Lawyers in America® in 2006-2021, for Entertainment (Music, Motion Pictures and Television), Intellectual Property (Copyright and Trademark) and Sports Law and was a Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” for Entertainment Law (2012, 2013 and 2015) and for Sports Law (2014).