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A local Newspaper stole one of the images from my website and are now selling it in their paper without permission, I created the image from scratch for my website and the website states on the very bottom of every page that, "Copyright © 2014 my companys name here. All rights reserved. Content and images on this Web site are the property of My companys name here. Copying or reproduction of any kind is forbidden without prior approval." Do I have any grounds for a lawsuit?
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Intellectual Property Attorney serving Manchester, NH
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Hayes Soloway P.C.
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You may. Newspapers will have some fair use rights to publish newsworthy pictures that might otherwise be limited by copyrights. Assuming that is not the situation, you could have grounds for a lawsuit. If you registered your copyright before it was infringed, or after infringement starts but less than 3 months after you first published the image, you would have the right to statutory damages ($750-$250,000) plus attorney fees. If you register your copyright after the infringement starts (your copyright must be registered to initiate litigation), you will be limited to damages you can prove - either profits you lost or their profits - and no attorney fees. In the latter situation, a frequent issue is that the expense of litigation exceeds the damages won from successful litigation, which makes pursuing litigation a net loss.
Answered on Apr 02nd, 2014 at 10:25 AM