United States First Circuit

In consolidated copyright infringement cases, the First Circuit holds that: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing a music publisher and its affiliate to litigate copyright infringement claims as to four songs used in live Christmas concerts produced by a bank, as those songs were not part of a settlement agreement; 2) the evidence of infringement was sufficient; 3) the district court did not err by twice denying the bank the opportunity to introduce certain evidence; 4) the district court correctly found that a publisher owned a song and that parties infringed its rights by retroactively licensing the performance rights to that song, and the award of damages was proper; and 5) the bank was not entitled to an offset or return of the monies it paid in performance fees for two songs.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/11/2012
• Published 05/11/2012

Judges

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Edwin J. Prado-Galarza, Mauricio Hernandez-Arroyo