New Jersey – Plaintiff Christopher Sadowski is suing Defendant Restoration 1 By J&D, LLC, of New Palestine, Indiana, over violation of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 501, for allegedly reproducing, distributing, and publicly displaying Sadowski’s intellectual property for its own commercial purposes.
The suit accuses Restoration 1, a property damage restoration company, of using Sadowski’s photograph of Christmas lights on the Restoration 1 website without the proper licensing or permission to do so. The Plaintiff claims that the Defendant has never been licensed to use the photograph and upon learning of its unauthorized use, the Defendant has not been willing to negotiate a reasonable license for it. Furthermore, the complaint states that Restoration 1 displays a copyright disclaimer (“Copyright © 2017”) on the page of the website that contains the photo, allegedly asserting that Restoration 1 owns the rights to everything on the webpage, including the photo in question.
The Plaintiff is currently seeking an acknowledgement of willful infringement from the Defendant and a monetary award of damages and profits of up to $150,000 for each infringement of the photograph, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.
This case has been assigned to Judge James R. Sweeney II, and referred to Magistrate Judge M. Kendra Klump, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana, and assigned Case No. 1:23-cv-01224-JRS-MKK.