Justen S. Barks

Justen S. Barks is a commercial, intellectual property, and entertainment litigator with extensive experience representing entertainment industry companies and creatives to enforce and defend their rights.

Justen has represented Grammy®-award winning recording artists, global fashion brands, documentary film-makers, reality-television personalities, and more. His practice includes work before the U.S. Trademark and Copyright Offices, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, along with litigation in state and federal courts. Justen's experience litigating intellectual property disputes and entertainment contracts allows him to educate and inform his clients in negotiations, corporate transactions, due diligence, and risk management.

In addition to his work as the owner of Barks PLLC, Justen is the Director of the University of Houston Law Center’s Entertainment Law Clinic. Mr. Barks also donates his time pro bono to the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts and to the University of Houston Law Center Interscholastic Mock Trial Team. He was named to the annual list of Top Lawyers in Houston for his entertainment practice by Houstonia Magazine each year from 2016-18, and has been named a Texas Rising Star in the fields of entertainment and sports law for 2022 and 2023.

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Publications & Presentations

That's Not Fair! (or Is It?), paper and presentation for the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting Intellectual Property CLE, 2023.

Copyright Update: 2022, presentation for the State Bar of Texas 36th Annual Advanced Intellectual Property CLE, 2023.
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Ethics Lessons from Copyright Cases: Section 512, Fair Use, and the Attorney-as-witness Rule, paper and presentation for the State Bar of Texas 35th Annual Advanced Intellectual Property Law Litigation CLE, 2022.

A Weekend Update: Copyright Year-In-Review, with Yocel Alonso, paper and presentation for the State Bar of Texas 34th Annual Advanced Intellectual Property Law: Overview of IP CLE, 2021.

‍Tales from the Crypt: And Other Stories from Copyright's Past Year, with Yocel Alonso, published for the State Bar of Texas 33rd Annual Advanced Intellectual Property Law: Overview of IP CLE, 2020.

Thoroughly Modern Copyright, or What in the Dickens Happened after Ragnarok?, with Yocel Alonso, paper for the State Bar of Texas 32nd Annual Advanced Intellectual Property Law: Overview of IP CLE, 2019.

The Secret Wars of Comic Book Writers, presentation for Comic Indie Con in conjunction with the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, 2018.

Intellectual Property, Merchandising, and Fantasy Football, presentation for the University of Houston Law Center’s “Super Bowl of CLE,” 2017.

Culture Remix: Illegal Art, Copyright, and the Music Industry, presentation for University of Houston Library, 2017.

The Changing Economics of the Music Business, presentation for the Mack Performing Arts Collective and University of Houston Law Center’s Institute for Intellectual Property and Information Law, 2016.

World IP Day - Houston, presentation for the University of Houston Law Center Institute for Intellectual Property and Information Law, 2015.