Indiana Intellectual Property Law News
South Bend, Indiana – Copyright lawyers for Plaintiff The Art of Design, Inc. of Elkhart, Indiana filed an intellectual property lawsuit in the Northern District of Indiana. Defendants in this Indiana lawsuit are Pontoon Boat, LLC d/b/a Bennington and Bennington Marine of Elkhart, Indiana and Hawkeye Boat Sales, Inc. of Dubuque, Iowa.
Plaintiff is in the business of custom airbrushing, including the airbrushing of copyrighted art works onto different surfaces. Defendants offer marine goods, including pontoon boats. In 2011, Plaintiff and Bennington entered into an agreement wherein Bennington paid Plaintiff to apply copyrighted graphics, titled “Shatter Graphics,” to a limited number of Bennington’s pontoon boats in exchange for payment.
Plaintiff contends that, following this authorized application of Shatter Graphics to Defendants’ pontoon boats, Defendant made further use of the copyrighted design without Plaintiff’s authorization.
In this Indiana litigation, Plaintiff makes several allegations, including accusing Defendant of copyright infringement for the sale of pontoon boats bearing graphics “that are copied from and substantially similar to” Plaintiff’s Shatter Graphics, which has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office under Registration numbers VA 1-979-388 and 1-982-002. The lawsuit lists the following claims for relief:
• Count I – Breach of Contract against Bennington
• Count II – Unjust Enrichment against all Defendants
• Count III – Copyright Infringement against all Defendants
• Count IV – Unfair Competition against all Defendants
• Count V – Inducing Copyright Infringement against Bennington• Count VI – Violations of DMCA, 17 U.S.C. § 1202
Plaintiff is seeking damages, including treble damages, as well as equitable relief, costs and attorneys’ fees.
Practice Tip: Plaintiff’s copyright attorneys also represent frequent litigant Design Basics. We have blogged about Design Basics’ Indiana copyright litigation before. See:
• Design Basics Sues Fort Wayne Homebuilders
• Creator of Architectural Designs Files Two New Copyright Lawsuits
• Design Basics Files Three New Indiana Copyright Lawsuits
• Architecture Firms File Four New Infringement Lawsuits
• Design Basics Files Two New Copyright Lawsuits
• Architecture Firm Files New Lawsuit Asserting Infringement
• Design Basics Files Two Additional Infringement Lawsuits in the Northern District
• Design Basics Files Additional Indiana Lawsuit
• Design Basics Sues Builders and Others Alleging Infringement of Copyrighted Architectural Designs
This case is not yet assigned.