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KFC has been sued for copyright infringement in Russia

Two actors, featuring in promotional KFC’s advertising videos, have sued Russian KFC for copyright infringement. They seek 31 million Roubles compensation. These actors have concluded with KFC contracts for participation in KFC’s advertising campaign in 2014. They claim in 2017 the term of KFC rights have expired and KFC had to conclude new agreements or seek new permission, but did not do it.

The company is not agreed with accusations. The subjects of dispute are new advertising videos made in 2018. The company has taken old ad videos and made new videos from old editions. The actors are sure the company has no right to do so. The videos demonstrated not only in KFC restaurants in Moscow, but they were also placed in social network. So, potential audience, who could see videos in dispute, could be substantial.

But the most interesting thing in this case is the method how the compensation has been calculated. How the actors, namely their attorney, have reached the sum of 31 million Roubles? Very simple. “According to Russian law”. The attorney believes Russian law provides compensation for each illegal use of IP object. The compensation is from 10 thousands Roubles up to 5 mln Roubles. The plaintiffs have chosen the minimum sum of compensation – 10 thousands Roubles (about 150 dollars) for each demonstration of video.

Actually there is not logic in calculation of compensation. The plaintiffs have fixated the demonstration of videos during one day in one restaurant and then multiplied it by the quantity of KFC restaurants. When, as a result, they receive huge sum of compensation, the attorney has divided it in order to receive “reasonable sum”. Actually, the plaintiffs have no idea or information how many times the videos in question have been demonstrated in KFC’s restaurants. KFC denies all allegations and states it works strictly in accordance with current Russian law.