Indiana Intellectual Property Law News
Indianapolis, Indiana – Malibu Media, LLC d/b/a X-Art.com of Los Angeles, California has sued an unidentified Indiana resident, “John Doe,” for copyright infringement in the Southern District of Indiana.
Copyright lawyer Paul Nicoletti is again in federal court on behalf of Malibu Media. The “John Doe” defendant in this copyright infringement lawsuit allegedly used the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol to illegally download, copy and distribute elements of various works of Malibu Media’s copyrighted material. Malibu Media has also claimed that the defendant is a “persistent online infringer.” It claims that “John Doe” has infringed 67 separate copyrighted works owned by Malibu Media.
Malibu Media seeks a permanent injunction against infringing activities; an order by the court to remove infringing materials from all computers of the defendant; an award of statutory damages pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 504(a) and (c) and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.
Practice Tip #1:
The actions of companies such as Patrick Collins and Malibu Media have been called “extortionate” and, in at least one case, a class action suit has been filed against these “copyright trolls.”
The issue of intellectual property “trolls” has also caught the attention of several U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Charles Schumer. Senator Schumer has proposed legislation wherein the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would review patent infringement suits before they could be filed in court. Of course, such legislation is not directly relevant to actions sounding in copyright, such as the multiplicity of lawsuits filed by Malibu Media and Patrick Collins. It may, however, sound a warning bell that tolerance of the questionable activities of intellectual-property trolls of all varieties is wearing thin.
Practice Tip #2:
We have previously blogged about Malibu Media’s previous attempts to sue unrelated defendants en masse (see also here), as well as some responses of various Indiana courts (see also here and here).
The suit was filed by Paul J. Nicoletti. The case was assigned to District Judge Sarah Evans Barker and Magistrate Judge Debra McVicker Lynch in the Southern District of Indiana and assigned Case No. 1:14-cv-00735-SEB-DML.