Indiana Intellectual Property Law News
New Albany, Indiana – Broadcast Music, Inc., one of six Plaintiffs in this copyright infringement case, claims to license the public performance rights for 14 million copyrighted musical compositions (the “BMI Repertoire”). The other five Plaintiffs claim to each own at least one copyright in the musical compositions at issue which include “Free Bird,” “Me And Bobby McGee,” and “Midnight Rider.”
Defendant Scott County Restaurants, Inc. (“Scott”) allegedly owns and operates Bonanza Steak & BBQ (“Bonanza”) in Seymour, Indiana. According to the Complaint, Defendant Michael P. Everhart (“Everhart”) is an officer of Scott and is responsible for the activities and operations of Bonanza. Apparently, the musical compositions at issue in this case were each played at Bonanza on at least one occasion. Plaintiffs claim to have reached out to Defendants over 40 times regarding the necessity for Defendants to purchase a license for public performance before filing this suit seeking damages for willful copyright infringement.
The case was assigned to District Judge Tanya W. Pratt and Magistrate Judge Debra McVicker Lynch in the Southern District and assigned Cause No. 4:20-cv-000006-TWP-DML.