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Ninth Circuit: No statutory damages for continuing infringement that began before registration

By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C.

In a decision last week, the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's award of statutory damages for copyright infringement and affirmed the district court's default judgment award of attorney's fees for trademark infringement.  The plaintiff's copyright registration had an effective date of approximately one month after the first act of infringement, and nearly two years after first publication.

The Ninth Circuit held that the first act of copyright infringement in a series of ongoing infringements of the same kind marks the commencement of one continuing infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 412, joining the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits in this conclusion.  Because there was no legal significance between the defendant's re- and post-registration infringement, statutory damages were unavailable.

More detail of Derek Andrew, Inc. v. Poof Apparel Corp. after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on June 16, 2008 (boomark / email).