United States Third Circuit

In an action involving an insurance firm's accrual of claims under the Copyright Act, which has a three-year statute of limitations for civil actions, district court judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the federal discovery rule, not the injury rule, governs the accrual of civil claims brought under the Copyright Act; 2) the district court erred in granting defendant's motion for a new trial and summary judgment with respect to accrual of the statute of limitations issue, as the evidence before the first jury was sufficient to support its finding that plaintiff was not on inquiry notice of defendant's infringement before the date in question; and 3) the court properly rejected defendant's motion for judgment as a matter of law on the causation issue, as plaintiff met its burden to demonstrate a causal connection between the copyright infringement and defendant's profits.

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/03/2009
• Decided 06/05/2009
• Published 06/05/2009

Judges

• Before:  SCIRICA, Chief Judge, SLOVITER, and HARDIMAN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Jason R. Heller, Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, New York, NY, Matthew R. Skolnik, Bazelon, Less & Feldman, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellant in No. 08-2111.


• For Appellees:
  
• Aleksander J. Goranin, Matthew A. Pearson, David J. Wolfsohn (Argued), Woodcock Washburn, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellant in No. 08-2007 Appellee in No. 08-2111., Floyd Abrams (Argued), Katherine Vogele, Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, New York, NY, Thomas E. Zemaitis, Pepper Hamilton, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee in No. 08-2007 Appellant in No. 08-2111.