So You received a copyright infringement letter – now what?

You get home and in your mail is a letter, typically from a law firm – accusing you of infringing some obscure copyrighted image you posted on a blog, website or other online location – often one you posted many years before.  It asks for a large payment (at least to you) – often several thousand dollars – to remedy the past alleged infringement.  Many times the law firm sending the letter is a one trick pony – this is all they do – that is to say, they literally make money by threatening (and suing) small alleged infringers.  If the law firm is a real firm – that is to say, they do other things and are enforcing rights of a smaller client as an example, then you probably should take it more seriously.

These copyright holders are often referred to as “copyright trolls” – in reference to their modus operandi of putting copyrighted material on the web – often easy to download, with hidden or hard to find license terms, and then scouring the web and sending these letters, in the hopes that a number of recipients just pay up – because it’s too expensive to hire lawyers.  Done incorrectly by the troll . . . and they can go to jail.  However the trolls often have enough evidence that the claim appears facially valid – and coupled with the possibility of a lawsuit or losing, and the high cost of lawyers – probably a lot of people just pay.  What should you do?

One option of course is do nothing and ignore it . . . and while in many cases the copyright holder might never actually sue you – there is a risk that they do sue you – and often that suit might be in a remote court.  At that point it will probably cost a lot of money to defend it, or settle.  Copyright cases must be brought only in federal court.  So step 1 is to check PACER, and see how “litigious” the plaintiff is. If the plaintiff actually follows through and sues, it is obviously more risky to do nothing. We also recommend internet searching the plaintiff and the lawyer.  Often you may find others who have won, or otherwise successfully defended against them – or worse, you might discover they are “Prenda like” (see the link above) and then you would definitely consider rejecting their offer or reporting them to the authorities for extortion.

Step 2 is to investigate what you did, when you did it, and where you did it.  We have handled many of these cases. A common statement is something to the effect that “I hired a web developer that handled this” – and more rarely “they got the images and told me they were free.”  Just because something is posted on the internet does not make it free.  Just because you had a web developer do it for you does not exonerate you.  Even the free sites, like Pixabay, have license terms.  Some allow unrestricted commercial use, some do not, or require attribution.  If a third party did this, you should review your contract with the developer, and see if they represented that they would create an infringement free website. You might have an indemnification right – in which case you need to make a claim against the developer. If you personally did this, you should see if you can track back to where you copied the image from.  Some sites, particularly social media sites, have very permissive use rights for people on their platform – though often the original image is copied by another user from somewhere else and posted without permission of the owner of the copyright.  You also need to determine if you just linked to the content, or whether you actually copied it and reposted it.  In short, you need to determine if in fact you are responsible for the image or other content that is claimed to be an infringement.  If you copied the image and did not modify it, you need to review the meta data in the image.  Meta data, a portion of which is also referred to as copyright management information or CMI, can be attached to an image to note the author, where to obtain permission, the web site of where the image is available from, and other information. In most cases, it is a violation of US law to modify any CMI in an image.

Step 3 is, if you are a business, to review your insurance policies. In most cases copyright infringement is not within coverage.  However, infringements that are contained in advertising can be, and if you had special insurance, known as media liability1, the policy may cover it. Note that a business is not a formal construct – if you were operating as a sole proprietor and purchased insurance, you should check the policy. You may also have purchased “umbrella” personal coverage that might provide insurance coverage.

Step 4 is to determine  if in fact you are infringing, and if so, whether you have a defense.

In determining if you are infringing and if you might have a defense, some of the factors are:

  • How long ago did this occur?  Was it continuing?  If the initial act occurred more than 3 years ago and the infringement is not a continuing infringement, the statute of limitations may apply and bar the claim.
  • How was the image used – thumbnail? Embedded link (an image tag that references another server), full resolution or lesser resolution?  In some cases some uses of images like thumbnails are less likely to infringe than full resolution copies.
  • Did the image have a copyright notice on it? (please note, such notice could be contained in meta data/CMI and may not be visible)
  • Did you try and remove any CMI?
  • Was the image used in connection with a recent news event, relevant to that event, and associated with reporting on such event?
  • Was the image posted on social media and is that where it came from (some social media sites have broad licenses to re-use those images by other users – at least within those platforms)
  • Did the site generate any revenue of any kind (including 3rd party advertising?)
  • Was the image used in more than one location, in emails, text messages, or posted on other sites?  Each such use might be a separate infringement.
  • If the content is a video and the claim is related to an image in the video (and not the video itself), how long was the image viewable and how prominent was the image?
  • Did the copyright holder provide evidence of registration? A copyright holder in the US cannot sue in court without an actual registration certificate (although they can sue inside of the copyright office, and simultaneously file an application)
  • If evidence was provided, are there any defects in the registration?  Often, the registration is a “group registration” but in fact did not qualify – in which case the registration would be invalid. Group registrations are complex and often authors file them as group registrations but the images are not grouped correctly which can result in a defective registration.
  • Did the copyright holder typically license the image?  How (for example, alone, or solely in a group of other images)?  What was a typical license fee for the image/group?
  • Did you make any effort to try and license the image, investigate etc? Did you get legal advice/clearance?

Some notes about common misperceptions.  The first is that many people immediately think they have a fair use right to use the content. Fair use is a somewhat limited concept in most cases outside of real news reporting.  Every piece of content is not news.  For example, where you ate today and what the food looked like is not news in the typical fair use sense.  If you grab an image that is copyrighted and include it in your foodie blog, that is not normally going to be a fair use just because you think it is news.  However, if the blog is not commercial – in the sense of the blog does not earn you any money – either directly or indirectly, such as from advertising, then that is factor in fair use, though not dispositive.   The second is that many people’s immediate reaction is – well only like 50 people saw the image, or “only my family saw the image” or similar.  Copyright law does not turn on the external number of views.  An infringement occurs if you exercise any exclusive right in the copyright, regardless of whether even one person saw it.  Having said the above, to be sure, fair use is a real legal concept and there are cases in which the unlicensed use of a copyright is permitted under that doctrine.

At this point then, if you have determined there might be an infringement, the question is how to resolve the issue.  Even if you feel like you were making a fair use, just the elimination of risk can have some value.  So then you need to determine – what can a copyright holder recover in damages?

In the US, if the registration was filed within 90 days of publication, or before the infringement occurred, the copyright holder can recover statutory damages and attorneys’ fees.  Those statutory damages range from $750 to $30,000, however, criminal infringement can carry a damage award of $150,000 per infringement.  Having noted that, however “In a case where the infringer sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200.” This is known as an “innocent infringer.” To be an innocent infringer, however, the work needs to have omitted a copyright notice.  If you see a work that has a copyright notice on it (and again, that can be contained in meta data), and you infringe, you cannot be an innocent infringer.

One note about “per infringement” – an infringement is a single exercise of an exclusive right – again, without regard to how many people see the work.  So, for example, the posting of an image on a website is a single act of infringement – whether 1 person or a million saw it.  However, then embedding it in an email . . . is a separate instance of infringement.

Step 5 is now to determine whether to try and resolve the claim yourself, ignore it, or hire a lawyer to resolve it. A few notes on what we have seen:

1. A fair number of letters we see omit a copy of the registration certificate, or any explanation of the claim of infringement.   We would normally never resolve such a claim without seeing the registration certificate and verifying at least to some extent, that the registration is valid.

2. The dollar amount requested is often very bizarre.  For example, $3,568.  How is that determined?  The letters often make no explanation.  In our view, the number should be an even number, most typically based on $200, or $750, unless some evidence of bad faith infringement is shown.

3. The release included or provided if you do pay is often woefully inadequate.  For example, it often is related to a single example.  If a client pays, then it should be released for all uses of any kind in any media through the date of payment. The releases often include other notoriously oppressive language, like arbitration clauses, weird venue clauses in other states, and a variety of other terms that are oppressive and unfair, like future liquidated damages clauses.

While we have helped many of our regular business clients with these issues – it can be tough to help a “one off” personal infringement – as our fees rather quickly approach the amount sought by the copyright troll.

And a final note – if things get very bad and you get sued – HIRE A LAWYER (not us, as we generally restrict our litigation to inside the USPTO).  You may have rights under the AntiSLAPP legislation applicable in many states.  The copyright law generally gives the prevailing party a right to recover their fees – and in some cases in actual court, you can make a special type of offer, and if the plaintiff ultimately wins, but less or equal to your offer, then they have to pay your fees.

Copyright Infringement Small Claims Court Services

The Copyright Small Claims Court will be commencing operations in a few weeks (late June, 2022), and Oliver & Grimsley is pleased to announce that we will be providing both plaintiff and defense services for copyright small claims actions.

Copyright small claims actions should be a cost effective way of enforcing copyrights in the United States, if the copyright holder is primarily seeking a determination of infringement, and willing to receive an award of no more than $30,000. There are some considerations to keep in mind, however.

One advantage is that Copyright small claims actions can be filed without having previously received a certificate of registration, and without filing an application for special expedited status (which is expensive). However, an application for a certificate of registration must have at least been filed at the time of filing a small claims action.

The ability to file small claims efficiently should also provide a slightly better basis for pre-litigation resolution, as prior to this, it has always been a bit of a poker game to figure out whether an actual full suit would be filed in Federal court. Federal cases are very expensive, and if the copyright was not timely registered (see note 1), no statutory remedies or attorneys fees are available. With the ability to file claims informally, for much less cost, and without significant risk of years of discovery, a defendant receiving a cease and desist letter will have to more carefully consider whether a small claims action might be filed. However, the defendant receiving a small claims complaint can treat that claim as a true case or controversy, opt out of the proceeding, and commence a declaratory judgment action in some remote location, so this risk is not mitigated with the small claims process.

The biggest problem with the small claims process is that the small claims court is not mandatory – it is elective. If a defendant has such a claim filed against it, it can “opt out” of the proceeding, in which case “If you opt out, the CCB will dismiss the claim against you, but the claimant can still bring the same claim in federal court.” See https://ccb.gov/respondent/. Therefore, a plaintiff could go to the trouble of filing the small claim, spending money and filing fees, only to have the defendant opt out, and then the plaintiff has to start all over again in Federal court. It is virtually never cost effective to file a Federal court claim in the $30,000 range, so it will be easy for defendants who determine their risk is only at or around that number, to opt out and thus bet that the plaintiff will not follow through.

On the other hand, if a defendant believes that the claim is higher than $30,000, and there is real risk of plaintiff winning and also collecting fees (see note 1) – then opting in might make sense for the defendant.

In short, there is no one answer whether a plaintiff should file in small claims, and no one right answer whether a defendant should opt out. However, as the process is currently set up, it is generally going to be more likely that a defendant elects to opt out, especially where the plaintiff failed to timely register their copyright, and cannot seek statutory damages and the collection of attorney fees.

Note 1: Under 17 U.S.C. § 412, statutory remedies and attorneys fees are not available to a plaintiff/copyright holder unless the effective date of registration is either within 3 months of first publication of the work, “or 1 month after the copyright owner has learned of the infringement,” https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap4.html#412

This Spring, Stop and Smell the Roses: Bloomery Plantation Releases New Sweetshine®

Chilly weather has been plaguing us for longer than usual this spring, but we’re seeing a seasonal shift!  The folks of Bloomery Plantation Distillery have coaxed in the warmer weather with a newly launched product that joins the trademark-branded Sweetshine ® ranks of its internationally acclaimed flavored spirits!

Making its official debut, Saffron Rose Sweetshine ® tastes of rose, orange, and hints of saffron, and exhibits the champion-style quality of its family spirits, having been honored with the Silver Medal in the 2018 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.  In addition, the creative artwork of the lovely lady, Miss Rose, adorning the Sweetshine ® label, is indicative of the signature trade dress featured on all Sweetshine ® products and is complimentary to the portfolio of award-winning label illustrations.  

Together with having a quality product, Bloomery Plantation’s successful brand foundation is based on its intellectual property, which is built upon its registered trademarks, and distinguishable trade dress creating an iconic look and feel of its products.  Through these efforts, Bloomery Plantation has set its business and products apart from other distilleries and products in the industry.

A protectable trademark and brand are essential components of a prosperous business foundation, directly impacting business viability and valuation.  Bloomery Plantation has taken its business to a new level by using its intellectual property, registered trademarks and creative trade dress, to visually distinguish its product, increase brand recognition among consumers, and increase product visibility and placement on retail store shelves.  Together with a number of factors, including hard work and a quality product, Bloomery Plantation’s new trademark and branding campaign has increased valuation for the Bloomery Sweetshine ® business, along with also playing a part in the business’ increased sales revenue.  Our law firm was instrumental in helping Bloomery Plantation secure its intellectual property in its new branding efforts.  We advise clients during the product naming process, perform trademark investigative clearance searches, draft and file trademark and copyright applications with governments, both U.S. and abroad, and handle applications throughout the entire government examination process.  In addition, our firm also assists with maintaining protection and enforcing intellectual property against unauthorized third-party users.

We wish our client, Bloomery Plantation, the very best on its new product release!  See more about Bloomery Plantation and its award-winning and creatively flavored liqueurs, here.

For more information on creating, securing, and protecting your Product, Trademark, and Brand, please contact Pamela K. Riewerts, Esq., Partner and Intellectual Property Attorney at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC.  Pamela may be reached via email at: pamela@olivergrimsley.com

 

Congratulations to Our Client: “Mario Armstrong’s Never Settle Show” Wins Emmy Award

Hard Work and Hustle Pay Off:  Congratulations to our client, Mario Armstrong’s Never Settle Show for taking home an Emmy Award for “Interactivity” at New York’s 61st Annual Emmy Awards on April 14, 2018. The Emmy Awards Show celebrates talented television creators and media professionals in the industry. See Mario’s Emmy Award acceptance speech on behalf of the Show here.  In addition to the Show’s award win, Mario Armstrong was also nominated for an Emmy Award for his role as Program Host.

Recently celebrating its one-year anniversary, the Never Settle Show has been an industry game-changer in television broadcasting. By blending traditional TV production and innovative technology, the Show engages with a real-time audience from all over the world for participation in the Show by live video streaming and connecting with social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Periscope, Instagram, and YouTube Live.  The real-time audience communicates and interacts with guests through the Show’s social media.

In 2010, Mario Armstrong won an Emmy Award for Best TV Show Host and he was honored with another nomination in 2015 and again in 2018.  The Show recently finished its second season and is looking forward to announcing its third season.

Produced by Al Roker Entertainment and Never Settle Productions, the Never Settle Show airs each Wednesday at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT in New York City in front of a live studio audience. Viewers can watch and interact with the show through Entrepreneur Media’s Facebook page on: https://www.facebook.com/EntMagazine and The Never Settle Show, https://www.facebook.com/NeverSettleShow/.

The entire team at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC wishes Mario and the Never Settle team continued success – Congrats on all your hard work!  You did it!

 

 

Pharrell and Robin Thicke have “Got to Give it Up” to Marvin Gaye’s Family for Infringement due to “Blurred Lines” Song

Last week, the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court ruling that the artists of the 2013 “Blurred Lines” best-selling single infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got To Give It Up”.

In 2013, the family of the late Marvin Gaye sued musicians Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, and T.I.  (Clifford Harris, Jr.), and related recording companies, for copyright infringement. “Blurred Lines” was the best-selling single in the world that year and the Gaye family believed it to be similar in composition to Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got To Give It Up”. In 2015, the trial jury agreed.  After three years of an appeal process brought by the musician defendants, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the infringement ruling (Williams, et al. v. Gaye, et al. Case No. 15-56880)(March 21, 2018).

The decision was not unanimous. Judge Nguyen wrote a dissenting opinion stating that the songs “differ in melody, harmony, and rhythm.”  She also noted that it can be “challenging for judges untrained in music to parse two pieces of sheet music for extrinsic similarity. But however difficult this exercise, we cannot simply defer to the conclusions of experts about the ultimate finding of substantial similarity. […] Judges must still decide whether, as a matter of law, these elements collectively support a finding of substantial similarity.”  This ruling ultimately changes the music industry landscape moving forward, as it is arguable that the decision improperly protects an artist’s form of musical style. The majority opinion written by Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr., however, focused mostly on the technicalities of the case and the grounds for appeal, determining that the trial court erred only in finding Interscope Records and T.I. liable.

The Gaye family is entitled to approximately a $5.3 million-dollar judgement and running royalties of 50% on future songwriter and publishing revenues.  The damages breakdown consisted of: $3,188,528 in actual damages, plus profits of $1,768,192 against Thicke and $357,631 against Williams (and companies collecting royalties on William’s behalf). TI and his associated recording company were cleared of any infringement.

***To investigate or consider copyright protection for music, lyrics, or other works of art, or for more information, please contact Pamela K. Riewerts, Esq., partner at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC.  Pamela may be reached via email at: pamela@olivergrimsley.com

Cake Decorators’ Dilemma – To Make Or Not To Make That Character Cake?

When you walk through a bakery and see a cake with Disney Frozen characters on it, do you ask yourself – did Disney allow that?   At birthday parties, you see many themed parties and theme cakes – parents want to have a character cake for their child’s birthday.  A baker/cake decorator may wonder what are the legal risks in making and selling such cakes?  They do not want to lose a sale, but they don’t want to find themselves in legal trouble either.  Some may wonder how will the owner of these characters even find out if I make a cake with a character on it or even care?

The copyright owners of the character artwork do care and, particularly with social media today (everyone at the party taking pictures of the cake and posting on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram etc), it is easier to find such unauthorized works.  This post explores basic legal issues in the cake decorating business.  (more…)