Rafael Sánchez Aristi

Rafael is a professor of civil law at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.

He advises on all kinds of matters related to copyright law and other intellectual property rights. He regularly advises major users on their relations and fee negotiations with large-scale holders of intellectual property rights, both in litigation and pre-litigation scenarios. He also handles transactions and contracts involving intellectual property, advising clients on software-based and database-driven business models and platforms that work intensively with online content.

He has been involved in matters related to originality, plagiarism, transformation, co-authorship and other aspects regarding the protectability and ownership of works and copyright infringement. He has in-depth knowledge of the publishing and recording industries and provides services in areas overlapping with intellectual property, including unfair competition, personal rights (image, honor, the right to be forgotten) and the regime for digital provision of services. He has been developing an important practice in the art law sector, highlighting his expertise in the sculpture and architecture fields.

From 2009 to 2014, he was head lawyer of the Studies and Reports Service of the General Council of the Spanish Judiciary and, from 2007 to 2009, he was a substitute senior judge at the Provincial Court of Guadalajara.

He is deputy director of the journal Pe. i. Revista de Propiedad Intelectual and a member of the Association of Civil Law Lecturers and of the Literary and Artistic Association for Defense of Authors’ Rights (ALADDA)—the Spanish group of the International Literary and Artistic Association (ALAI)—of which he was chair from 2015 to 2019.