Copyright Law Updates | New Judicial Opinions
May 24, 2007
Troll Co. v. Uneeda Doll Co.
05-6487 CV, 2007 WL 1097082, 2d Cir., 4/13/2007
Holding:
Pursuant to section 104A of the Copyright Act, a party can be considered a "reliance party" only where the infringement is ongoing and without more than a trivial interruption.
Detailed Summary:
The district court preliminarily enjoined defendant from manufacturing, selling or distributing “wish-nik” troll dolls, since plaintiff claims the copyright had been restored pursuant to the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA). The URAA restores copyrights for various foreign works that had previously entered the public domain in the US because of noncompliance with certain formalities, especially notice of copyright. The Plaintiff’s copyright was automatically restored. But defendant argues that it is a “reliance party”—one who may continue to exploit the work until the owner makes known its intent to enforce the copyright—and thus may sell off its inventory of the dolls during a one year sell-off. The court held that defendant was not a reliance party because the statute requires continuous infringement, whereas defendant had voluntarily ceased exploitation for 9 or 10 years.
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