David O. Carson was in private practice for 16 years, first in Beverly Hills and then in New York, where he advised clients on copyright and media law and represented them in the federal district and appellate courts and the Supreme Court. In 1997 David O. Carson became General Counsel of the United States Copyright Office, with responsibility for the Office’s regulatory activities, litigation, administration of the copyright law, and providing liaison on legal matters between the Office and Congress, the Department of Justice and other agencies of Government, the courts, the legal community, and other interests affected by the copyright law. He served as General Counsel until 2012 with the exception of two years when he served as Associate Register of Copyrights for Policy and International Affairs. As Associate Register, he was the head of the Office of Policy and International Affairs, which assists the Register of Copyrights in advising Congress and executive branch agencies on domestic and international copyright policy matters.  He represented the Copyright Office in U.S. government delegations to meetings at the World Intellectual Property Organization, including its Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, and in relations with other governments and intergovernmental organizations.

 

From 2012 to 2014, he was Executive Vice President, Global Legal Policy at IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, in London where he represented the recording industry worldwide.

 

Since 2014 he has been Senior Copyright Counsel in the Office of Policy and International Affairs at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  He heads the copyright policy team, which assists in advising the Administration and other Federal Government departments and agencies on domestic and international copyright legal and policy issues and representing the United States at the World Intellectual Property Organization and in other multilateral and bilateral intellectual property matters.