Copyright owners now have another venue for enforcing copyrights: the Copyright Claims Board (CCB). Established by the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2020 (CASE Act), the CCB aims to provide...more
[co-author: Ivy Attenborough, Summer Associate] Thank you for reading the June 2022 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss the differences between Copyright Claims Board and federal...more
Let’s suppose that you have not registered your copyright in a book with the U.S. Copyright Office and you find someone has infringed your copyright by copying substantial portions of your book. Let’s also suppose you are...more
In Johnson v. Columbia Debt Recovery, a Washington district court awarded each plaintiff $30,000 in emotional distress damages under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), $120 in treble actual damages under the...more
The Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act (CASE Act) was signed into law on December 27, 2020, as part of the Omnibus COVID-19 Relief Bill. The CASE Act establishes a completely new forum for resolution of...more
Class action litigation brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is on the rise—particularly in California—after the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a 2017 decision applying a hypertechnical...more
Colloquially known as the ‘‘Rocket Docket,’’ the Eastern District of Virginia (‘‘EDVA’’) has been the speediest federal court for civil trials since 2008, according to the annual data compiled by the Administrative Office of...more
Recently, copyright owners suing in the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit were given a new reason to seek statutory damages instead of actual damages under the Copyright Act. Failure to...more
Addressing § 504(c)(1) of the US Copyright Act, which permits an award of statutory damages in lieu of actual damages for copyright infringement, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit considered a question of first...more
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Spokeo v. Robins, which held that federal plaintiffs alleging a statutory violation must have suffered a real, concrete injury in order to have Article III standing, many defendants...more
In Francisco v. Midland Funding, No. 17 C 6872, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20601, at *2 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 8, 2019), the plaintiff sued Midland Funding LLC and Midland Credit Management, Inc. (“MCM”) under the Fair Debt Collection...more
The extent to which individuals may seek relief due to the unauthorized use of their personal information is an important issue in the privacy community. The Supreme Court of Illinois recently added its voice to this debate...more
Often, when faced with litigation, it can be difficult to assess potential exposure for defendants. While actual damages may be easy to calculate, treble damages, attorneys’ fee awards, and punitive damages significantly...more
Since the passage of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in 2008, it has been used by plaintiffs’ attorneys to sue companies that use biometric identification technologies. Many BIPA cases have failed...more
FCRA includes a provision for recovery of attorneys fees, but as the defendant in Perri v. Diversified Adjustment Serv. learned, proving bad faith or harassment is not easy. 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 213612 (D. Az. Dec. 19,...more
Of FCRA’s many remedy provisions, parties frequently focus their attention on 15 U.S.C. § 1681n(a), which includes provisions that allow plaintiffs to recover actual damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, and...more
Depending on the statutory violation, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows plaintiffs to recover a wide array of damages and exposes defendants to significant liability. Seemingly minor violations of the Act may result...more