United States Ninth Circuit

In a copyright infringement case, summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) under Twin Books v. Walt Disney Co., 83 F.3d 1162 (9th Cir. 1996), sculptures created by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir and one of his assistants were not in the public domain and were protected by copyright; 2) Twin Books remains binding precedent and does not conflict with either the Copyright and Patent Clause or the Supreme Court's precedent in Eldred v. Ashcroft; and 3) defendants infringed plaintiff's copyrights in the sculptures.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/20/2008
• Decided 12/09/2008
• Published 12/09/2008

Judges

• D.W. NELSON, Circuit Judge:, Before:  MARY M. SCHROEDER, D.W. NELSON and STEPHEN REINHARDT, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• David Steiner and Michael Hambly, Steiner & Associates, PLC, Los Angeles, CA; Ray K. Harris, Fennemore Craig, P.C., Phoenix, AZ, on the brief, for defendant-appellant-plaintiff-cross-appellee Jean-Emmanuel Renoir., Joshua Kaufman, Venable LLP, Washington, DC, for defendants-appellants-plaintiffs-cross-appellees Beseder Inc., Dror Darel, Tracy Penwell, and CSTPGU, LLC., Richard Morris, Surprise, AZ;  Richard Stevens, Phoenix, AZ, for plaintiff-appellee-defendant-cross-appellant Societe Civile Succession Richard Guino.