Serio v. Skijor USA, Inc.

Background

Scott Serio, doing business as Eclipse Sportswire, is a sports photographer who specializes in horse racing. He photographed the horse Justified during a race and registered the photograph with the United States Copyright Office. The opinion states that Serio remained the owner and sole licensee of the copyright.

The defendant operated the website www.skijorusa.com. According to the complaint, the defendant found the photograph online and uploaded it to the website without Serio’s permission. Serio discovered the use in March 2022. The copyright registration became effective on July 2, 2018, and the alleged infringement occurred in 2022.

Default and Jurisdiction

Serio filed the lawsuit on January 18, 2023, and served the defendant through the New York Secretary of State on April 6, 2023. The defendant did not answer, attend the initial pretrial conference, respond to the motion for default judgment, or attend the default judgment hearing. The Clerk of Court entered a certificate of default on May 26, 2023.

A default judgment is a final judgment entered when a defendant fails to defend the case. Before entering one, the court must determine whether the complaint’s factual allegations are adequately pleaded and establish liability as a matter of law; a defendant’s default does not automatically admit legal conclusions. The court held that it had subject-matter jurisdiction because the claim arose under the federal Copyright Act. It also held that it had personal jurisdiction over the defendant because the defendant was incorporated and had its principal place of business in New York.

Copyright Liability

The court concluded that Serio’s well-pleaded allegations established copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501. A copyright-infringement claim requires proof of ownership of a valid copyright and unauthorized copying of the copyrighted work.

Serio submitted the copyright-registration certificate, and no one challenged the copyright’s validity. The court therefore found that he satisfied the ownership requirement. The complaint also included the photograph and a screenshot of the image on the defendant’s website. The court found that the images were identical and concluded that the defendant had copied the work without authorization.

The court therefore granted default judgment in Serio’s favor on the copyright-infringement claim.

Damages

Serio elected statutory damages instead of actual damages and did not seek attorney’s fees and costs. The Copyright Act permits statutory damages ranging from $750 to $30,000 for an unintentional infringement and up to $150,000 for a willful infringement. The court found that the timing of the registration did not bar statutory damages because the registration became effective before the infringement.

Serio requested $30,000, asserting that the infringement was willful. The court declined to find willfulness. It stated that Serio offered no evidence showing that the defendant knew of the infringement, acted with reckless disregard for his rights, or copied the photograph from a source identifying Serio’s copyright interest. The defendant’s default alone was not enough to establish willfulness.

The court also considered the lack of evidence about Serio’s actual losses, the defendant’s profits, licensing fees, the need for deterrence, the defendant’s cooperation, and the parties’ conduct. The court described the allegations as involving an isolated violation by a first-time infringer and found that Serio’s limited evidence weighed against a substantial award. It awarded $1,000 in statutory damages.

Injunction

Serio also requested a permanent injunction, meaning a court order prohibiting future conduct. The court found that the risk of continuing infringement, the inadequacy of money damages alone, the balance of hardships, and the public interest supported injunctive relief.

The court rejected Serio’s proposed language because it would have barred infringement of any of his intellectual-property rights and was too broad. Instead, the court stated that it would issue an injunction directed exclusively to preventing future infringement of the photograph at issue.

Disposition

The court’s conclusion states: “The motion for default judgment, Dkt. No. 18, is GRANTED.” Serio was directed to file a proposed judgment consistent with the Memorandum and Order by December 13, 2023.