Dean Dunlavey was not an inventor or a consumer electronics executive, but he is arguably singularly responsible for the home video revolution. In 1984, Dunlavey, working as an attorney representing Sony, successfully argued the so-called “Betamax” case before the United States Supreme Court. As a result of Dunlavey's arguments, the court ruled that Americans had the right to record programs broadcast on TV. This landmark decision made it legal for manufacturers to produce, and consumers to use, the VCR.
Dunlavey was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on October 31, 1925. After a year at Iowa State University, Dunlavey volunteered for the Army when WWII broke out, serving in the Philippines as a captain in the infantry.
After the war, Dunlavey earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1949 from Harvard on the GI Bill and then received a doctorate in nuclear chemistry from Berkeley in 1952. Even though he worked with Nobel Prize winner Glenn T. Seaborg at Berkeley on creating transuranic elements, Dunlavey felt stifled in the lab and discovered he yearned for a more confrontational profession.
Dunlavey stayed at Berkeley where he earned his law degree from Boult Hall, finishing first in his class in 1955. He served as editor-in-chief of the California Law Review and was made a member of the Order of the Coif. While teaching at Harvard Law School he simultaneously earned his master's degree. He then joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 1956. In 1970, he was named a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Soon after the Betamax was introduced in 1976, Universal City Studios and Walt Disney Productions sued Sony, several retailers who sold the Betamax, Sony's advertising agency and a representative consumer named William Gibson for copyright infringement. A district court ruled for Sony, a decision that was overturned in 1981 by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The case then went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The down-to-earth Dunlavey argued the case twice before the Supreme Court in 1983, once on January 18, and again on October 3. Both times, Dunlavey contended that the studios were paid for selling their product to television networks and were not entitled to additional compensation if a consumer recorded them for personal viewing.
In January 1984, the court ruled 5-4 in favor of a consumer's right to record. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, concluded "[t]he sale of the VTR's [video tape recorders] to the general public does not constitute contributory infringement of [Universal's] copyrights." A memo circulated at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher after the decision noted it was "universally agreed by all Supreme Court watchers that Dean's oral argument made all the difference."
While the decision was crucial to the consumer electronics industry, Dunlavey viewed it as just another case. During his 34-year career, Dunlavey tried nearly 100 cases, including several cases other then Sony v. Universal before the U.S. Supreme Court. He later told a reporter "I have done nothing but litigation since the day I walked in the door here. I can't think of a better way of making a living than fighting with people and getting paid for it."
Dunlavey continued to represent Sony until he retired in 1990.