Supreme Court’s rule on copyright damages might not last, attorneys say
Herrick counsel, Barry Werbin, was quoted in Thomson Reuters Westlaw discussing how the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Warner Chappell Music v. Nealy is being interpreted as only a provisional victory for copyright plaintiffs.
The article noted the Supreme Court's May 9, 2024, ruling in Warner Chappell addressed whether a copyright plaintiff benefiting from the "discovery rule" can recover damages from acts that occurred outside of copyright law's limitations. Whether courts should embrace the discovery rule — which allows a claim to be brought within three years of being discovered, rather than three years from when the act happens — was an issue that got "kicked down the road, leaving it for another day," Barry said.
Barry explained that the decision leaves courts "in a partial limbo state, where separate circuits will continue to assess whether the discovery rule is the proper test for statute-of-limitation purposes."