- B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, English, Theatre, 2002
- J.D., University of Minnesota Law School, 2005
Joe Gratz is a litigator who is as comfortable on his feet in court as he is hashing over source code with a group of engineers. A member of the American Bar Association IP Section's Copyright Reform Task Force, Joe is a respected commentator on copyright and Internet law.
A true "digital native," Joe has been on the Internet for more than twenty years. His deep understanding of technical issues and his background as a technical writer (and as an exhibit designer for a science museum) allow him to explain complex technical concepts simply and accurately to judges, juries, and clients.
Before becoming a partner, Joe was Durie Tangri's first associate. He was previously an associate at Keker & Van Nest LLP, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable John T. Noonan, Jr. of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2005-06. Joe graduated Phi Beta Kappa with degrees in English and Theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002. In 2005, he received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science, and Technology (and director of the law school musical).
Joe has litigated a number of important Internet copyright and trademark disputes. He represented Google in negotiating the settlement of class action copyright litigation related to the Google Book Search case and in the Rescuecom v. Google and Vulcan Golf v. Google trademark cases. He successfully defended the Ninth Circuit's judgment in favor of a credit card processing company in Perfect 10 v. VISA against en banc and certiorari attacks. In a pro bono case, Joe won summary judgment on behalf of Troy Augusto, an eBay seller of promotional CDs who had been sued by the world's largest record company. He previously represented artist Shepard Fairey in fair use litigation against the Associated Press over the Obama Hope poster.
Joe led his team to victory in the 2008 Electronic Frontier Foundation Pub Quiz, breaking the tie with Google, Stanford, and Berkeley by recalling that the speech at issue in the First Amendment case Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988), was a parody of a Campari ad.