Indiana Copyright Litigation Update – Saturday Evening Post Society v. Hungry Howie’s Pizza & Subs

15 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by Kenan Farrell in Copyright, Indiana, Litigation, Southern District of Indiana

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Conversion, Copyright Infringement, Debra McVicker Lynch, Larry J. McKinney, Saturday Evening Post Society v. Hungry Howie’s Pizza & Subs, Unjust Enrichment

Indianapolis-based Curtis Publishing Co. has sued a Michigan-based chain of pizza restaurants for copyright infringement.

The suit, filed June 3 in federal court in Indianapolis, accused Hungry Howie’s Pizza & Subs Inc. of Madison Heights, Michigan, of infringing the copyright to a Saturday Evening Post cover first published in 1943. The cover, “Freedom from Want,” is by the late Norman Rockwell, and features the image of a family at a Thanksgiving dinner as a large roast turkey is being brought to the table.

Curtis accused the pizza chain of using the Rockwell painting in an “unauthorized, multistate advertising campaign, according to court papers. The ads, which began in November 2009, featured a “precise mimicry of the various nuances” of the Rockwell painting,” with the alteration of replacing the turkey with a pizza, Curtis said in its complaint.

Despite having been sent a cease-and-desist letter and “numerous other communications,” the pizza chain continued to use this advertisement throughout the 2009 winter holiday season, according to court papers.

The publisher is represented by Jonathan Faber, Kyle M. Baker and Cynthia A. Bedrick of McNeely Stephenson Thopy & Harrold of Shelbyville, Indiana.

The case is Saturday Evening Post Society Inc. v. Hungry Howie’s Pizza & Subs Inc., 1:10-cv-00680-LJM-DML, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis).

View this document on Scribd

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Happy World Intellectual Property Day!!!

26 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by Kenan Farrell in Copyright, Intellectual Property, Patent, Trade Secret, Trademark

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WIPO

Most people are aware of intellectual property (IP) – of copyright, patents, industrial designs and trademarks. But many still view these as business or legal concepts with little relevance to their own lives. To address this gap, WIPO’s Member States decided in 2000 to designate an annual World Intellectual Property Day. They chose April 26, the date on which the Convention establishing WIPO originally entered into force in 1970.

Each year, WIPO and its Member States celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with activities, events and campaigns. These seek to increase public understanding of what IP really means, and to demonstrate how the IP system fosters not only music, arts and entertainments, but also all the products and technological innovations that help to shape our world.

The aims of World IP Day are:

to raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life;
to increase understanding of how protecting IP rights helps promote creativity and innovation;
to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe;
to encourage respect for the IP rights of others.

Greatest invention? The toilet snorkel.

For more info and suggested activities, see WIPO.

Indiana Man Handed 15-Month Sentence for Copyright Infringement

30 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Kenan Farrell in Copyright, Indiana, Intellectual Property, Litigation

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David A. Sanners, 36, of Evansville, Indiana, was sentenced to 15 months in a work release center by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young following his guilty plea to infringement of a copyright for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain.

This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Sanners admitted that between May 1, 2007 and Oct. 12, 2007, he reproduced, by electronic means, and then distributed 1,202 copies of copyrighted motion pictures in DVD format. Sanners offered the DVDs for sale to customers using catalogs.

Judge Young also ordered Sanners to make restitution in the amount of $23,979 while serving a term of three years of supervised release.

Most copyright litigation is civil in nature, meaning a court finds that a defendant has infringed and orders the defendant to pay either statutory damages or actual damages and profits. However, this case emphasizes that there are also criminal copyright penalties, and Congress has shown recent interest in increasing these penalties. It should be noted that there was certainly more to this case than just copyright infringement. The DVDs were discovered along with drugs at an Evansville home daycare which only months earlier had been the site of a pornography sting. The prosecutors certainly had these folks on their radar.

Source: Evansville Courier

For those interested, here’s the relevant provision of the Copyright Law:

§ 506. Criminal offenses

(a) Criminal Infringement. —

(1) In general. — Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed —

(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;

(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or

(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.

NFL to allow Super Bowl in Churches?

25 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by Kenan Farrell in Copyright, Indiana, Intellectual Property, Just for Fun, Trademark

≈ 1 Comment

The last time Peyton Manning was leading the Indianapolis Colts on a championship run, the NFL clamped down on the ability to watch the big game in churches. The NFL sent letters to churches informing them that airing the game would be a violation of the NFL’s copyright and trademark rights. However, last year the NFL called a reverse and allowed viewing in churches under certain conditions.

So what’s the NFL’s policy this year? Unless we hear otherwise, we have to assume that the NFL is sticking to last year’s policy that churches can air the Super Bowl without violating copyright laws. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something that would suggest otherwise.

So start planning those parties…Go Colts!