Maria A. Pallante

Maria A. Pallante is President and CEO of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), where she leads policy and litigation priorities for the modern publishing industry, with a particular focus on copyright, freedom of expression, and digital markets.  She is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School where she teaches copyright law.

From 2011 to 2016, Ms. Pallante served as Register of Copyrights and Director of the US Copyright Office during an extremely active period of statutory and regulatory modernization in which the Office worked closely with Congress to address gaps in the law, publishing key studies on such issues as the “making available” right under US law, music licensing reform, and solutions for small copyright claims, as well the Office’s first public index of fair use opinions. She overhauled the Compendium of US Copyright Office Practices, making it widely available for the first time as a living digital publication for courts, lawyers, and examiners, and established both the Barbara A. Ringer Honors Fellowship and Abraham L. Kaminstein Scholar in Residence program. As Register, she testified before Congress numerous times and represented the United States on treaty and trade delegations.

A recognized authority on copyright law, Ms. Pallante has delivered numerous distinguished lectures in the field, including the Manges Lecture at Columbia Law (“The Next Great Copyright Act”); the Meyer Lecture at GW Law (“The Next Generation Copyright Office: What it Means and Why it Matters”); the Kastenmeier Lecture At the University of Wisconsin Law School (“I am the Captain Now”); and, most recently, the Copyright Society’s Brace Lecture at Fordham Law (“The Art and Innovation of Exclusive Rights”). Ms. Pallante serves on several advisory bodies, including the American Bar Association’s Copyright Task Force, the George Mason University Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (C-CIP2) Advisory Board, and the Americana Music Foundation Board of Directors. She is a former Trustee of the Copyright Society and a recipient of the DC Bar’s Champion of Intellectual Property Award.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Pallante served for eight years as in-house counsel with the Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, New York, where she advised on contemporary art exhibitions, publications, and governance, and directed the global trademark licensing and branding program for the institution’s famous name, buildings, and collections. She began her career in private practice and as staff counsel with the Authors Guild and National Writers Union.