A blog about patent, copyright and trademark law in the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York

Court Enters Default Judgment and Awards Maximum Statutory Damages in Copyright Infringement Action

In an April 3, 2014 ruling, Judge J. Paul Oetken granted the plaintiff’s motion for a default judgment in a copyright infringement action over the “Frankie and Johnnie” chair, awarded $150,000 in statutory damages, and directed the plaintiff to submit a fee application. The Court “reviewed the filings in this case and conclude[d] that Plaintiff has satisfied the prerequisites to entry of default judgment on its copyright infringement claim.” Judge Oetken further found that the defendant “acted willfully because it is reasonable to assume that as a furniture company, [the defendant] ‘should have known’ that its conduct was infringing based upon its experience with copyright matters.” The Court awarded the maximum $150,000 statutory amount in “light of the compensatory and deterrent purposes of the Copyright Act, the burden of bringing an action, and [the defendant’s] failure to appear.”
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