A recent case, commented on by David Foster on BVR’s Intellectual Property Blog, brings to the foreground the nuances of properly quantifying recoverable damages in Copyright Infringement litigation.
The case [Interplan Architects, Inc. v. C.L. Thomas, Inc., 2010 WL 3982273 (S.D. Tex.)(Oct. 8, 2010)], involving architectural drawings used to build a number of stores, involves two layers of analysis. Directly, the infringing architecture firm must be looked at to determine the direct profits attributable to the use of the copyrighted works at issue. Indirectly, the plaintiff’s expert initially claimed to have calculated “indirect profits” from the construction of several stores using the infringed copyrights.
For additional details and an explanation of other problems with two other experts presented by the plaintiff, see the full post at: BVR’s Intellectual Property Blog.