Category Archives: Litigation

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

15 Tuesday Jun 2010

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

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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).

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Indiana Patent Litigation Update – Masco Corporation of Indiana d/b/a Delta Faucet Company v. Watermark Designs, Ltd.

14 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by in Intellectual Property, Litigation, Patent, Southern District of Indiana, Trademark

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Court Case Number: 1:10-cv-0716-SEB-JMS

File Date: June 9, 2010

Plaintiff: Masco Corporation of Indiana d/b/a Delta Faucet Company

Plaintiff Counsel: R. Trevor Carter, Brandon Scott Judkins

Defendant: Watermark Designs, Ltd.

Cause(s): Patent Infringement, Trademark Infringement, False Designation of Origin and False Description of Fact, Unfair Competition, Common Law Trademark Infringement and False Advertising Unfair Competition

Court: Indiana Southern District Court

Judge: Sarah Evans Barker

Referred to: Jane Magnus-Stinson

The subject patent:

If you’d like a full text copy of the patent, leave a comment.

Indiana, LOVE artist, in Trademark Litigation

12 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by in Artists, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Trademark

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Pop artist Robert Indiana, best known for his LOVE statue (which was created in 1964 for a Christmas card for New York’s Museum of Modern Art) is being sued by a former business partner, John Gilbert.

Gilbert claims Indiana signed an agreement three years ago which allowed him to license sculptures and other pieces bearing the word “prem” (Sanskrit for “love”) in Indiana’s iconic style.

The deal apparently fell apart at some stage, leading to the cancellation of auctions at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and according to Gilbert’s breach of contract suit, kept him from “meeting [his] obligations under current contracts and jeopardized prospective contractual agreements with numerous third parties.”

Indiana, now 81 years old, has filed a counter-suit for alleged violations of trademark law, stating that he never signed an agreement.

For the full story, see The Gothamist.

New Indiana Online Child Support Calculator

02 Friday Apr 2010

Posted by in Family Law, Indiana, Litigation, Supreme Court

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The Indiana Supreme Court has developed a new online child support calculator for use by attorneys, judges and other practitioners and a second one for use by parents. According to the Web site, the calculators were created as a tool to determine child support obligation. The one for parents also suggests it should not be used as a substitute for advice from a lawyer. They can be found at www.in.gov/judiciary/childsupport/. A downloadable calculator is currently in development.

Indiana Man Handed 15-Month Sentence for Copyright Infringement

30 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by 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.