William Patry

Senior counsel copyright at Google

Bill Patry is Senior copyright counsel at Google Inc. he is a huge fan of German technological ingenuity and craftmanship. As an avid bicyclist, he uses the most advanced carbon fiber components from cutting edge German firms such as ThM- carbones (Alt Duvenstedt), Schmolke (Konstanz), and Tune (Buggingen). As an avid clarinetist, he commissioned the making of a basset clarinet from the Bamberg workshop of Schwenk & Seggelke. This instrument contains 100 year-old boxwood, an “Anton Stadler” bell, but the latest in key mechanics, thereby mixing history and modern techniques.
Bill has been a copyright lawyer for 32 years. he has written many books on copy- right, including a 7 volume, 7,000 page treatise; a treatise on the fair use defense, and two books for general audiences: how to fix copyright (2012) and Moral Panics and the copyright Wars (2009).
Before joining Google, he was copyright counsel to the u.S. house of Represen- tatives, committee on the Judiciary; Policy Planning Advisor to the Register of copyrights, u.S. copyright office; a full-time law professor, and a lawyer in private practice litigating cases and advising clients.
he grew up in Marin county, northern california, and now lives in connecticut.