Court Enters the Wrong Opinion
- Susan Basko
Oops, we've all been there. Judge Douglas R.Cole of the Southern District Ohio accidentally entered the wrong Court Opinion on the Motions for Summary Judgement filed by both parties in this long-running Copyright Infringement case. The Judge was quick to correct the mistake when the Weekend Warrior Plaintiffs called attention to it, however the incorrect Opinion is still on the Pacer docket.
The Opinion is 61 pages long. Of course, many readers will skip right to the last page to read the Conclusion. In this case, the Conclusion was a copy-and-paste error that is basically the opposite of the Conclusion that was supposed to be there.
This is what first appeared as the Opinion's Conclusion:
Such an outcome would mean that Weekend Warrior would be going to trial on only the Vicarious Liability claim and the Wilfullness issue. This did not reflect the actual decisions by the Judge.
The Wide-Awake Whelan Brothers, who run Weekend Warrior, spotted the error and Motioned the Court to correct this error. Judge Cole quickly revised the Order, including its Conclusion. This does not yet appear on the docket, but here it is.
This newly-revised Conclusion means that Weekend Warrior Clothing will be headed to trial on the issues of Direct Copyright Infringement, Vicarious Copyright Infringement, and Wilfullness. They look forward to this jury trial against Amazon.
The Opinion is a bit complex to follow. It sounds like there are about 80 Weekend Warrior tshirt designs that have been allegedly infringed by Amazon. It also sounds like there are many factors that could lead to a jury finding that Amazon infringed willfully. It also sounds like most of the designs had registered Copyrights. Therefore, it sounds like there may be potential damages of $12.5 million to $25 million at stake. The Jury gets to decide whether Amazon is liable for the Copyright infringements and what it is all worth. From the start of this case, I have been pegging the damages at a minimum of $12 million, and that still seems to be the case. But we will all find out many long months from now after the trial and penalties are decided.
This is a case to watch and I've been an avid spectator. Weekend Warrior claims that as soon as it put up new shirts for sale, Amazon stole its designs and copied them and offered them for sale on Print-on-Demand shirts. It will be interesting to see if a jury agrees.
PS. The picture above is a stock photo, not really this Judge's office.
Photo by Tsuyoshi Kozu on Unsplash