{"id":1418,"date":"2017-11-23T05:33:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T05:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2017-11-23T05:33:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-23T05:33:15","slug":"you-should-have-at-least-interest-in-copyright-in-order-to-bring-a-copyright-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/2017\/11\/you-should-have-at-least-interest-in-copyright-in-order-to-bring-a-copyright-suit.html","title":{"rendered":"You should have at least interest in copyright in order to bring a copyright suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Young is an individual who works in visual art publishing. Beginning in 1992, Young did business under the d\/b\/a \u201cGreg Young Publishing\u201d (\u201cGYP\u201d). Beginning in 2007, he began using the d\/b\/a \u201cGreg Young International\u201d (\u201cGYI\u201d). On December 18, 2007, he created GYPI, a California corporation. Young has worked with a number of visual artists. Since 2010, Young has been the licensing agent for Scott Westmoreland, an artist who creates landscape and beach-themed art.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Zazzle is a California corporation with its headquarters in Redwood City, California. It runs a website that allows users to upload images of artwork, slogans, and designs. Users can choose various consumer products they want the image to appear upon (e.g., coffee mugs, posters, t-shirts, etc.), and offer these products for sale to the public. When an order is placed, Zazzle will produce and deliver the product, paying a royalty to the user who uploaded the image appearing on the product.<\/span><\/p>\n

GYPI alleged that Zazzle has publicly displayed 41 paintings by Westmoreland or Erickson on its website, and that Zazzle has created consumer products bearing these images. It asserted claims for copyright infringement and sought injunctive relief, statutory damages (or, in the alternative, actual damages and restitution), and attorney\u2019s fees.<\/span><\/p>\n

GYPI and Westmoreland entered an agreement providing that GYPI would be Westmoreland\u2019s \u201cexclusive representative\u201d for soliciting, negotiating, and administering licensing agreements with third parties. Westmoreland holds the copyrights to his paintings, and GYPI agreed that it would not acquire \u201cany right\u201d in these copyrights. GYPI has no authority to enter into contracts on Westmoreland\u2019s behalf, but may present potential agreements to him for his approval. The parties agreed that if Westmoreland elected not to bring an action to enforce his copyrights, GYPI would have the right to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zazzle argued that GYPI cannot sue to enforce Westmoreland\u2019s copyrights because it lacks any ownership interest in these copyrights. The Court agreed. Although GYPI is Westmoreland\u2019s exclusive representative for soliciting, negotiating, and administering agreements with third parties, it does not have authority to exercise any exclusive right with respect to Westmoreland\u2019s works.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without his permission, GYPI cannot reproduce, distribute, or display his paintings or create derivative works. At most, GYPI can negotiate licensing agreements and submit them to Westmoreland for approval. That is not a power to use or authorize the use of the copyrighted works. GYPI\u2019s status as Westmoreland\u2019s exclusive representative is insufficient to establish statutory standing under 17 U.S.C. \u00a7 501(b).<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, GYPI lacks standing to enforce the Westmoreland copyrights; any infringement claim based on these copyrights is to be dismissed<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Young is an individual who works in visual art publishing. Beginning in 1992, Young did business under the d\/b\/a \u201cGreg Young Publishing\u201d (\u201cGYP\u201d). Beginning in 2007, he began using the d\/b\/a \u201cGreg Young International\u201d (\u201cGYI\u201d). On December 18, 2007,<\/p>\n

Continue readingYou should have at least interest in copyright in order to bring a copyright suit<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,25,6,4,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright","category-distribution","category-intellectual-property","category-internet","category-litigation","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dekuzu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}