2010 TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring

Ramada Mall of America Minneapolis, Minnesota

June 24-26, 2010

General Session:

Stephen Gillen

Collaboration Agreements: How to Ensure Your Coauthor Won't Become Your Enemy

Day/Time: Saturday, 9 - 10:00 p.m.

Presenter: Stephen E. Gillen, Authoring Attorney, Greenebaum Doll & McDonald

No one ever sets out to co-author a work with their first enemy, but when a collaboration goes bad that's where you can end up if you haven't planned for that possibility. Gillen, an authoring attorney, long-time TAA member, and member of the TAA Council, knows all too well that disputes among co-authors are more likely to result in Mutually Assured Destruction ("MAD") than in a successful outcome for one author or the other. He explains what can go wrong, and provides tips for how authors can plan for the best even while preparing for the worst. He will also walk attendees through the provisions of a typical collaboration agreement.

While the economics of having a collaboration agreement are more compelling for textbook authors, said Gillen, authors who collaborate on scholarly works also have reason to memorialize their agreement. He shares this example of why that's so: "I'm aware of a case where co-authors got an article accepted for publication by a peer-reviewed journal but before that journal could publish it one of the co-authors, without the knowledge or consent of the other, adapted the article and got it published elsewhere first. When the peer-reviewed journal learned that the work had been previously published, it withdrew its acceptance. The non-consenting co-author lost a publication credit in a peer-reviewed journal and got no credit for the other publication."

About the Presenter:

Stephen E. Gillen is an attorney practicing in Cincinnati, Ohio, and concentrating on publishing and entertainment transactions and disputes, internet issues, advertising law, computer law, copyrights, trademarks, technology transfer, trade secrets, and related matters. Prior to entering private practice in 1994, Gillen served for 8 years as house counsel for an educational publisher, and before that as an executive editor, editor, freelance writer, and published book author. In addition, Gillen has served on copyright and permissions committees with the Association of American Publishers. He has written and spoken nationally on various publishing and copyright topics and teaches a course in Media Business and Law at the University of Cincinnati and a course in Electronic Media Law at the College Conservatory of Music. He currently serves on the Council of Advisors to the Text and Academic Authors Association, the Board of Trustees of Voyageur Media Group, Inc., and is a member of the Authors Guild. Gillen is admitted to practice in Ohio and before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.