Sullivan v. Flora, Inc.

Dist. Ct. erred in granting plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in proceeding to determine damages in plaintiff’s copyright infringement action, where Dist. Ct. granted plaintiff’s request for 33 separate statutory damages awards that reflected plaintiff’s claim that defendant had infringed on copyrights covering 33 illustrations. Instant proceedings was result of Ct. of Appeals remand, after Ct. of Appeals held that record contained insufficient evidence under independent economic value test to determine whether plaintiff was entitled to 33 separate statutory awards or was entitled to some lower number of awards. Dist. Ct. erred in: (1) finding that defendant had waived issue as to whether certain illustrations would not support finding of separate statutory damages award; and (2) ruling on summary judgment based on same record that Ct. of Appeals had previously found was insufficient to make such determination. Dist. Ct. also erred in granting plaintiff’s summary judgment motion, where there was some evidence indicating that: (1) plaintiff had produced and distributed instant illustrations as two collective products and not separate illustrations; (2) plaintiff registered illustrations in only two copyrights; and (3) certain illustrations were used only as solid color background textures, which might not have any independent economic value.