Presentations, Publications and Other Activities

Board Certification!

Dave was named by the Florida Bar as a Board Certified Intellectual Property Lawyer in the inaugural group of attorneys certified in Intellectual Property Law in 2007. In Florida, certified attorneys are the only lawyers permitted to identify themselves as specialists or experts, and this new intellectual property law specialty is the first of its kind in the United States. Certification is the highest level of evaluation by the Florida Bar of the competency and experience of attorneys in certain areas of law, requiring special knowledge, skills and proficiency in the law and professionalism and ethics in practice.

Articles:

Dave has written several published articles on Trademarks and Copyrights, Internet Domain Disputes, and Florida's New Trademark Law. These articles can be found in the Legal Links section of this website.

Recent Presentations and Other Stuff:

On  July 28, 2010, Dave spoke on Intellectual Property Law featuring trademarks, copyrights, patents and trade secrets at a seminar sponsored by the Pinellas County Business Development Center in Clearwater.

On May 24, 2010, Dave spoke on Copyright and Internet Law and Cyberlaw at a meeting of the Bay Area Professional Writers Guild in Largo.

On  April 28, 2010, Dave spoke on Intellectual Property Law featuring trademarks, copyrights, patents and trade secrets at a seminar sponsored by the Pinellas County Business Development Center in Clearwater.

On April 16, 2010, Dave spoke on Copyrights and related legal issues at a seminar entitled "Copyright Basics for Artists in the Digital Age"  sponsored by  the Pinellas County Cultural Affairs office and Lawyers for the Arts at the EpiCenter in Clearwater.

On April 14, 2010, Dave spoke on the Copyright Fair Use doctrine as a guest lecturer at  a Copyright Law class at Stetson University College of Law  in Tampa.  Dave taught Intellectual Property, Computer Law and Copyright Law as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Law Schools of Stetson and the University of Florida over a ten year period from 1989 to 1999.

On October 22, 2009, Dave presented a program entitled “What the Business Lawyer Needs to Know about Trademarks, Copyrights and Cyberlaw”  to the Business Law Committee of the St. Petersburg Bar Association.

On October 6, 2009, Dave spoke on Computer and Internet Law to the Society for Technical Communication (STC), Suncoast Chapter, in Clearwater.

On April 1, 2009, Dave spoke on Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw at an Introduction to Paralegalism class in the Legal Assistance Program at St. Petersburg College, Clearwater Campus.

On March 3, 2009, Dave spoke on Intellectual Property Law at a seminar sponsored by the Pinellas County Business Development Center in Clearwater.

Dave was quoted in the Tampa Tribune on the eve of the 2008 World Series about an attempt by Tropicana, owner of the naming rights to the Tampa Bay Rays' ball field, to stop an alleged cybersquatter from using the domain name tropicanafield.com.

Duke Lecture - Dave gave a lecture and presentation on Intellectual Property, Computer and Cyberlaw and related legal issues at Duke University in Durham, NC at a meeting of the
university's ACM Chapter, Computer Science Department, on April 10, 2008.

Dave spoke on Copyright Law and related legal issues at a meeting of the Tampa Writers Alliance on April 2, 2008 in Tampa.

On December 6, 2007, Dave lectured on Copyright and Trademark Law at an Intellectual Property Law Continuing Legal Education seminar sponsored by the National Business Institute in Tampa.

On July 19, 2007, Dave spoke on Copyright Law and Prosecution at a two-day Florida Bar Intellectual Property Law Certification Seminar in Orlando designed for those taking the inaugural Florida Bar Intellectual Property Certification examination.

On June 8, 2007, Dave spoke on Copyright Law at an Intellectual Property Law Continuing Legal Education seminar sponsored by the Hillsborough County Bar Association and the Clearwater Bar Association in Tampa.

On April 18, 2007, Dave gave a talk, "What You Need to Know About Copyright Law," to members of the Stetson Intellectual Property Law Society at Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg.

On April 17, 2007, Dave presented a Copyright Workshop for members of the Professional Association of Visual Artists (PAVA) and other artists at the Fine Art Center in Dunedin.

On February 3, 2007, Dave made a presentation entitled "Copyright Law for the Professional Genealogist" at a meeting of the Florida Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists at the Library in Largo.

On January 19, 2007, Dave was one of the featured speakers at a seminar entitled "IP Rocks: Intellectual Property and the Entertainment Business" presented by the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law (EASL) Section of the Florida Bar at the Bar's annual midyear meeting at the Hyattt Regency Hotel in downtown Miami. His presentation included an update on Trademarks, Internet Domain Names, and other Intellectual Property issues.On November 20, 2006, Dave spoke about Copyrights and related legal issues in Tampa at a meeting of the Florida Writers Association, Tampa Group.

On September 18, 2006, Dave addressed the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Suncoast Chapter, in a continuing education presentation entitled "The Name's the Game: Trademarks, Logos, Domain Names, Cybersquatting, and Player and Entertainer Publicity Rights." The talk was presented at a Business and Baseball program at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg preceding a game between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Baltimore Orioles.

Dave was a member of a subcommittee of the Intellectual Property Law Committee of the Florida Bar's Business Law Section that reviewed a proposed bill to revise Florida's Trademark Act . The committee made extensive comments on the bill, after which it was amended by the legislature and enacted into law, effective January 1, 2007 (for more about the new law, see the the article, "What's In A Name" at http://www.lawyers.com/davidrellis/legallinks.jsp).

Over past few years, Dave has had several of his articles published on a variety of topics in the areas of Intellectual Property and Computer and Cyberlaw, including the Supreme Court's decision in the file-sharing case, MGM v. Grokster;Florida's New Trademark Act; Copyright Law and the Rght of Publicity; Trademarks and Internet Domain Names; and cases featuring Elvis, Evel Knievel, Dwight Eisenhower, Napster, and the Washington Redskins. Links to these articles can be found in the Legal Links section.

On September 14, 2006, Dave made a presentation to the Florida Writers Association, St. Petersburg Group, on Copyrights and related legal issues.

Dave conducted a seminar on Copyrights and Intellectual Property Law for Public Access Television Producers at the Tampa Bay Public Access television studios in Tampa on July 24, 2006. Dave was the featured speaker at a meeting of the Florida Motion Picture and Television Association, Tampa Bay Chapter, on Copyrights, Trademarks, Publicity Rights, Contracts, and related legal issues in Clearwater on May 17, 2006.

Dave spoke at a meeting of the Tampa Bay Advertising Federation in Clearwater on April 20, 2006. The title of his talk was "Thumbing Along the Information Highway: Legal Issues in Advertising, Intellectual Property and the Internet."

On February 27, 2006, Dave presented a talk on Copyrights and Publishing Contracts at a meeting of the Bay Area Professional Writers Guild in Largo.

On October 15, 2005, Dave spoke on Copyrights and Intellectual Property Law at a seminar in Clearwater entitled "The Artist and the Law," sponsored by the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, of which he has been a member for many years.

On January 21, 2005, Dave spoke and served on a panel at a seminar presented by the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law (EASL) Section of the Florida Bar at the Bar's annual midyear meeting at the Hyattt Regency in downtown Miami. His topic was Visual Arts Law and Technology: Art on the Internet and in Digital Media.

On November 12, 2004, Dave presented a lecture and discussion forum on the Law of Cyperspace, Computers, and Technology to students and faculty of Florida International University in Miami at the local chapter of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) , Department of Computer Science.

On September 18, 2004, Dave spoke on Copyrights and Intellectual Property Law to the Pinellas Genealogy Society at the Largo Library on East Bay Drive in Largo.

On July 13, 2004, Dave conducted a two-hour seminar for Public Access Television Producers at the Tampa Bay Public Access Television studios on Copyright and Intellectual Property Law .

On May 22, 2004, Dave spoke on Intellectual Property and Copyrights at a seminar on Art Law in St. Petersberg sponsored by the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, of which he has been a member for many years.

Dave had four articles on intellectual property published in the May 2004 issue of the EASL (Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law) Newsletter of the Florida Bar on such diverse topics as Elvis, Napster, Dwight Eisenhower, and the Washington Redskins. For a link to the newsletter, please go to the Legal Links section of this website.

On January 28, 2004, Dave spoke on Copyright, Intellectual Property and Internet Law to the West Pasco County Genealogy Association in New Port Richey, his second appearance before the group.

Dave headed the planning committee and moderated a Florida Bar Business Law Section Continuing Legal Education program entitled "Landmark Cases in Intellectual Property, Computer Law and Trade Regulation: Winning Strategies from the Lawyers Who Argued Them" at the Florida Bar Midyear Meeting in Miami on January 16, 2004. The seminar was jointly sponsored by two committees in which he has long been active, the Intellectual Property Law Committee and the Computer Law Committee, as well as the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee.

Dave spoke on Intellectual Property and Computer and Cyberlaw on October 8, 2003 at a meeting of the Tampa Bay Inventor's Council in Largo, of which he is a founding member .

Dave spoke on Copyrights, Fair Use and Intellectual Property Issues relating to the Internet at the Florida Public Relations Association's annual Professional Development Seminar in Gainesville on April 11, 2003. He also spoke about Copyright Law on behalf of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts at a workshop sponsored by the Pinellas County Arts Council on February 25, 2003 at St. Petersburg College in Tarpon Springs.

Dave spoke at the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section's seminar "Managing Your Entertainment Practice in a Tough Digital World" on January 17, 2003 during the Florida Bar's Midyear Meeting in Miami. His topic was Copyright Law Update for the Entertainment Lawyer.

Dave passed the Patent Bar Examination in October 2002, He is licensed to prosecute patents before the United States Patent and Trademark Office under Registration No. 52,860.

Dave spoke to a variety of groups about Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw and Computer Law at seminars and conferences in 2002, including:

Florida Writers Association (Copyrights and Publishing Contracts), Ringling School of Art and Design (Copyrights and Contract Law), CLE International Seminars (Information Technology Law), Stetson University College of Law, Florida Association of Woman Lawyers (Intellectual Property and Computer and Cyberlaw), Pinellas County Arts Council, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (Intellectual Property Protection), American College of Computer & Information Sciences, ACM Chapter (Computer and Cyberlaw), Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Suncoast Chapter (Cyberlaw and the CPA), Association of American University Presses (Copyright and Fair Use in a Digital Environment), West Pasco County Bar Association (Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw), National Business Institute (Trademarks and Copyrights, Trade Secrets, Licensing, and Ethics),

Dave also spoke at two Florida Bar Continuing Education seminars in 2001 and 2000. In 2001, Dave was Co-Chair of the subcommittee planning the annual Florida Cyberlaw seminar held on May 4, 2001 in Fort Lauderdale. The seminar entitled the "Third Annual Internet Law and Representation of Technology Companies" was a two-track presentation co-sponsored by the Intellectual Property, Corporations & Securities, and Financial Services Committees of the Business Law Section.

The previous year, Dave spoke on Copyrights in Cyberspace at the second annual Florida Cyberlaw seminar in Miami on Friday, February 11, 2000, www.Internetlaw.com II, which updated the highly successful 1999 seminar sponsored by the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar.

Dave presented his Tenth Annual program in April 2001 as part of the Florida Bar's Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section's CyberEntertainment Seminar in Tampa. In March 2000, Dave presented his Ninth Annual Intellectual Property Law Update Luncheon Seminar for the EASL Intellectual Property Committee, of which he was Co-Chair.

Dave also appeared on two radio call-in shows on Computer and Cyberlaw and Intellectual Property Law: WWBA Radio 1040 on February 6, 2000, and WTAN Radio 1340, The Computer Connection, on August 5, 2000.

Dave has written a number of articles on Computer and Cyberlaw and Copyright. that have been published in various print and online publications. A list and links are included under Legal Links elsewhere on this website.