California Court of Appeal

In case involving use of plaintiff's image on Taster's Choice instant coffee label without plaintiff's consent, multi-million-dollar jury award of damages to plaintiff is reversed as: 1) unless a reasonable person in plaintiff's position had no meaningful ability to discover the publication, plaintiff must have filed a lawsuit within two years of when defendant first published his image or republished his image; 2) defendant knowingly used plaintiff's image without his consent; 3) Civil Code section 3344 applies to plaintiff even though he is not a celebrity; and 4) plaintiff failed to provide substantial evidence showing that the profit award was attributable to the use of his image.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/29/2007
• Published 06/29/2007

Judges

• COOPER, P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Horvitz & Levy, David M. Axelrad, Jeremy B. Rosen, John A. Taylor, Jr., Encino;  Heller & Edwards, Lawrence E. Heller, Beverly Hills, and Shula R. Barash, for Defendant and Appellant., Law Offices of Colin C. Claxon, Colin C. Claxon, San Rafael;  Mayer & Glassman Law Corp., Robert David Mayer, Los Angeles;  Kibre & Horwitz, Eric G. Stockel, Beverly Hills;  David J. Franklyn, for Plaintiff and Respondent.