2009 Decisions

Opinions of the United

States Court of Appeals

for the Third Circuit

6-5-2009

William A Graham Com v. Thomas Haughey

Precedential or Non-Precedential: Precedential

Docket No. 08-2007

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 PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

 

No. 08-2007

 

WILLIAM A. GRAHAM COMPANY,

d/b/a The Graham Company,

 Appellant

v.

THOMAS P. HAUGHEY; USI MIDATLANTIC, INC.

 

No. 08-2111

 

WILLIAM A. GRAHAM COMPANY,

d/b/a The Graham Company

v.

THOMAS P. HAUGHEY; USI MIDATLANTIC, INC.,

 Appellant

 

On Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

(D.C. No. 05-cv-00612)

District Judge: Honorable Harvey Bartle, III

 

Argued March 3, 2009

Before: SCIRICA, Chief Judge, SLOVITER, and HARDIMAN,

Circuit Judges

(Filed: June 5, 2009 )
2

____

Aleksander J. Goranin

Matthew A. Pearson

David J. Wolfsohn (Argued)

Woodcock Washburn

Philadelphia, PA l9l04

Attorneys for Appellant in No. 08-2007

Appellee in No. 08-2111

Floyd Abrams (Argued)

Katherine Vogele

Cahill, Gordon & Reindel

New York, NY 10005

Thomas E. Zemaitis

Pepper Hamilton

Philadelphia, PA l9l03

Attorneys for Appellee in No. 08-2007

Appellant in No. 08-2111

Jason R. Heller

Cahill, Gordon & Reindel

New York, NY 10005

Matthew R. Skolnik

Bazelon, Less & Feldman

Philadelphia, PA l9l02

Attorneys for Appellant in No. 08-2111

 

OPINION OF THE COURT

 
3

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

We face an issue of first impression for this

court–whether the discovery rule or the injury rule governs the

accrual of claims under the Copyright Act, which has a threeyear statute of limitations for civil actions, 17 U.S.C. § 507(b).

Under the injury rule, a claim accrues, and the statute of

limitations begins to run, when the plaintiff suffers a legally

cognizable injury. Therefore, if the injury rule applies in this

case, appellant/cross-appellee William A. Graham Company

(“Graham”) cannot recover on its claims that appellees/crossappellants USI MidAtlantic, Inc. and Thomas P. Haughey

(collectively, “USI”) infringed its copyrights more than three

years before Graham filed suit. Conversely, if the discovery rule

applies, then Graham’s cause of action for each act of

infringement did not accrue until Graham discovered, or with

reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury

underlying its claim. Thus, if the discovery rule applies, Graham

may be able to recover on acts of infringement that occurred

more than three years before it filed suit.

The District Court concluded that the discovery rule

applied to civil actions under the Copyright Act and the case

proceeded to a jury trial. The jury found that Graham was not on

notice of USI’s infringement prior to February 9, 2002–leading

to its conclusion that none of Graham’s infringement claims was

time-barred. That jury entered a verdict in Graham’s favor in the

amount of $16,561,230 against USI MidAtlantic and $2,297,397

against Haughey. However, the District Court set aside the

jury’s finding and ultimately held that Graham was time-barred

from recovering for acts of infringement that occurred more than

three years before it filed suit in light of certain “storm

warnings” of those earlier acts of infringement.

The case then proceeded to a second jury trial on the issue

of damages for the three year period preceding Graham’s filing;

the second jury entered a verdict for Graham in the amount of

$1.4 million against USI MidAtlantic and $268,000 against

Haughey. Thus, if we determine that the District Court correctly
4

held that the discovery rule governs the accrual of claims under

the Copyright Act, we must then decide whether the Court

correctly applied that rule to the facts of this case.

Finally, USI cross-appeals and renews its contention,

rejected by the District Court, that Graham cannot recover on

any of its claims because it failed to prove a legally sufficient

causal nexus between the infringement and USI’s profits

awarded to Graham as compensation for the infringement.

I.

BACKGROUND

A. Facts

Graham is an insurance brokerage firm that provides

property and casualty insurance services to businesses. Haughey

worked for Graham as a producer (salesperson) from January

1985 through September 1991. Producers serve as

intermediaries between their clients and insurance companies. 

Graham’s producers solicit clients by first preparing a risk

assessment study, called a survey and analysis, that evaluates the

client’s needs. In order to prepare the survey and analysis, a

producer generally must spend a significant amount of time

learning the client’s business, assessing its insurance needs, and

reviewing its current policies. The producer then prepares a

written proposal that contains recommendations addressing the

client’s needs as identified in the survey and analysis. If the

client agrees to Graham’s proposal, it places the client with an

insurance company that actually writes the insurance. Graham

receives a commission from the insurance company which issues

the policy and in addition receives a service fee from its client.

In the 1980s, Graham’s president, William Graham,

developed form language called the Standard Paragraphs to be

used by Graham’s producers to prepare survey and analysis

documents and coverage proposals. The Standard Paragraphs

were not copyrighted.
5

Sometime in 1990, Graham began to prepare the Standard

Survey and Analysis and the Standard Proposal (collectively, the

“Standard Works” or the “Works”). The Standard Works, which

were each hundreds of pages long, included some language from

the Standard Paragraphs as well as new material. After draft

versions of the Standard Works were distributed to Graham’s

eight producers, including Haughey, the first edition of the

Standard Survey was completed around March or April 1991 and

it was then copyrighted. The first edition of the Standard

Proposal was completed in the fall of 1991 and it also was

copyrighted. Graham placed copyright notices on client

documents that incorporated the Standard Works and registered

certain portions of the Works with the Copyright Office.

Graham’s producers use the Standard Works as templates

for client-specific proposals. The Standard Works include plain

English explanations of insurance policies and concepts that

Graham’s producers can copy into client-specific materials and

that clients can easily understand. The Standard Works also

serve as reference materials to guide Graham’s producers in the

development of client-specific materials. Graham’s president

testified that the Standard Works are “absolutely essential” to

Graham’s business “[b]ecause they are probably the most

important way that we can establish creditability [sic] with a

perspective [sic] client.” App. at 371.

Haughey’s employment with Graham was terminated in

September 1991, apparently because Haughey’s clients were

primarily smaller, family-run businesses and Graham sought at

that time to attract larger businesses as clients. Haughey testified

at trial that he left Graham on amicable terms and he received a

thirty-thousand dollar severance package payable over three

months. Graham and Haughey also entered into a termination

agreement in which Haughey reaffirmed his promise in his

employment contract to keep company information confidential

and to turn over all of Graham’s “papers and the information

contained therein” in Haughey’s possession upon termination of

his employment. App. at 1987. Nonetheless, following his

termination Haughey retained binders that contained at least part

of the Standard Works.
 This letter was not presented in evidence before the first 1

jury, which, as previously stated, concluded that Graham was not

time-barred from recovering for acts of infringement occurring

more than three years prior to Graham’s filing of the instant case.

However, the District Court relied in part on Haughey’s improper

solicitation of Graham’s clients as evidence that Graham was on

notice of USI’s copyright infringement as early as the fall of 1991.

 USI contends that Haughey’s testimony supports an 2

inference that his infringement began immediately after his arrival

6

Shortly thereafter, Haughey got a job at a smaller

insurance brokerage firm, Flanigan, O’Hara & Gentry (“FOG”). 

At about the same time that Haughey joined FOG, Haughey

solicited certain of Graham’s clients in violation of his

termination agreement. Graham’s executive vice president

(Judith Dooling) sent Haughey a letter memorializing a

conversation in which Haughey agreed to cease such solicitation

pending negotiation of an agreement to sell FOG and Haughey

certain accounts.1

In November 1991, Graham, FOG and Haughey entered

into an agreement in which Graham sold FOG six of Haughey’s

prior accounts. Graham provided FOG and Haughey with

materials related to those six accounts, including proposals made

to those clients in the current and prior year which included

Graham’s copyrighted materials. Haughey also specifically

promised to hold all “knowledge and information concerning”

the Standard Works “in trust [and] in confidence for the sole

benefit of Graham,” to return all “papers and information”

obtained from Graham other than information related to the

accounts sold, app. at 2084, and not to “use, divulge, or

otherwise disclose” any of Graham’s confidential information,

app. at 2082.

Notwithstanding his promise, Haughey subsequently

infringed Graham’s copyrighted material in the Standard Works

by including it in proposals to FOG’s clients. Haughey first

included Graham’s copyrighted material in a proposal to a client

in July 1992. It is unclear whether Haughey copied this 2
at FOG in November 1991, but the portions of his testimony relied

upon by USI do not establish a date of infringement. USI also

notes that, during opening arguments to the jury, Graham made

statements that USI’s improper use of the Standard Works began

in 1991, and contends that Graham should be held to these

statements. However, this court has held that a “judicial

admission[ ] must be unequivocal” to be effective, Glick v. White

Motor Co., 458 F.2d 1287, 1291 (3d Cir. 1972), and Graham’s

statements do not unequivocally state that an act of infringement

(as opposed to possession of the Works) occurred in 1991.

Moreover, Graham had the burden to prove that acts of

infringement occurred, and its evidence established a date of first

infringement in July 1992.

7

material from his own copy of the Standard Works or whether he

used a copy of the 1992 version of the Standard Works (which

Haughey had not obtained before the termination of his

employment with Graham) brought to FOG by another former

Graham employee, Don Boresen, in the spring of 1992. In any

event, at some time in 1994 or 1995, FOG copied the entire 1992

version of the Standard Works into its word processing system;

paper copies were also distributed to FOG’s employees.

In 1995, FOG was acquired by USI Holdings and

subsequently merged with two other entities to form USI

MidAtlantic. The Standard Works were made available to USI

employees.

According to Graham’s expert, Haughey and USI copied

Graham’s copyrighted language from the Standard Works into at

least 857 proposals over thirteen years (1992 through 2005). 

USI personnel testified that its written proposals to clients

(including, presumably, those with infringing language) were an

important part of the sales process–in fact, Haughey even

testified that some clients were convinced to purchase insurance

through USI on the basis of the proposals–and that it was USI’s

practice to review the proposal’s contents “page by page” with

the client. App. at 571. Moreover, FOG had nothing

comparable to the Standard Works when Haughey first arrived
 The District Judge who initially heard this matter and who 3

ruled on the statute of limitations motion died in 2005. The

successor District Judge reaffirmed that ruling.

 We note that the District Court provided the jury with a 4

spoliation instruction because USI destroyed certain client

proposals after the Court had ordered production of such

documents.

8

and, as noted above, FOG and USI made electronic and paper

copies of the Standard Works available to their employees and

encouraged them to use the Standard Works when developing

client-specific materials. On the other hand, most of USI’s

proposals during this period did not include infringing language,

and even those that did include infringing language did so only

on a few pages.

It was USI’s practice to keep proposals to clients

confidential, and Graham did not discover USI’s infringement

until November 2004, when a client showed one of Graham’s

producers a copy of a USI proposal to the client.

B. Procedural History

Graham filed this action on February 8, 2005, asserting

claims for copyright infringement against USI and Haughey as

well as a breach of contract claim against Haughey. USI moved

for partial summary judgment, contending that any infringement

that occurred more than three years prior to filing of the

complaint was time-barred under the Copyright Act’s three-year

statute of limitations for civil actions. The District Court denied

the motion, holding that the discovery rule applied to

infringement claims under the Copyright Act and that therefore

Graham was entitled to present evidence to demonstrate that it

could not have reasonably discovered USI’s infringement before

it actually did so.3

The case proceeded to a jury trial. After Graham 4

voluntarily dismissed the breach of contract claim that it had

asserted against Haughey, the jury reached a verdict in favor of
 This amount represented the profits that USI and Haughey 5

earned as a result of the infringement. Under the Copyright Act, 17

U.S.C. § 504(b), Graham bore the burden of establishing the

defendants’ gross revenue from infringement; Graham presented

evidence that USI’s gross commissions from clients who received

an infringing proposal were approximately $32 million and that

Haughey’s gross commissions were approximately $12 million.

The defendants then bore the burden of proving that certain

expenses should be subtracted from the gross revenue figure and

to apportion the revenues between their infringing and noninfringing conduct. Id. Here, the evidence showed that twenty-five

percent of the gross revenue was paid to producers as a salary

expense, leaving a total net commission for the defendants of

approximately $27 million. The jury’s ultimate award was

approximately seventy percent of that net commission, implying

that the jury concluded that thirty percent of the net commission

was attributable to factors other than the infringement.

In reaching this conclusion, the District Court considered 6

evidence regarding Haughey’s obligations to Graham under his

employment and termination contracts even though the Court

excluded those contracts from the jury because it had held that

those contracts were superseded by the November 1991 agreement

between Graham, FOG and Haughey.

9

Graham on the copyright claim in the amount of $16,561,230

against USI and $2,297,397 against Haughey. The District 5

Court presented the jury with several interrogatories, including,

as relevant here, whether Graham should have discovered that

USI was infringing its copyrights prior to February 9, 2002. 

Because the jury answered in the negative, Graham’s claims

were not time-barred under the discovery rule.

Following the jury verdict, USI moved for a new trial on

the statute of limitations issue, and the District Court granted the

motion. According to the Court, the jury’s answer to the statute

of limitations interrogatory “was against the great weight of the

evidence” because the District Court concluded that Graham

knew or should have known of certain storm warnings that

Haughey would infringe as early as the fall of 1991. William A. 6
10

Graham Co. v. Haughey, No. 05-612, 2006 WL 3386672, at *15

(E.D. Pa. Nov. 21, 2006). Specifically, the Court concluded that

Graham should have known: that Haughey retained a copy of the

Standard Works in violation of his employment and termination

agreements with Graham as well as the November 1991

agreement that sold FOG certain of Haughey’s client accounts;

that he was working as a producer for another insurance

brokerage firm; and that, given these facts, “it was quite

possible, if not likely, that Haughey and FOG would copy [the

Standard Works] into client proposals, for that was the only

reason for Haughey and FOG to retain [them].” Id. at *14. 

Thus, the District Court concluded that “Graham had

information upon Haughey’s departure [in the fall of 1991] that

would cause a person, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, to

inquire of Haughey and FOG about the possession, use and

copying of the [Standard Works].” Id. Therefore, the District

Court ordered a new trial as to the application of the Copyright

Act’s statute of limitations and the calculation of Graham’s

damages.

Because the District Court granted USI’s motion for a

new trial on the statute of limitations issue, it did not reach USI’s

motion for a new trial on the grounds that the jury’s

apportionment of USI’s profits (i.e., whether the profits were

attributable to infringement or some other non-infringing cause)

was against the weight of the evidence and/or that the verdict

was excessive.

USI also moved for judgment as a matter of law on the

ground that Graham failed to prove a legally sufficient causal

connection between any copyright infringement and USI’s

profits. The District Court denied that motion, holding that

Graham met its burden on this issue because Graham sought to

recover USI’s profits only as to USI’s clients who received

infringing proposals, demonstrated that the written proposals

were an important part of USI’s sales process, and demonstrated

that USI pervasively used language from the Standard Works.

Following subsequent cross-motions for summary

judgment on the statute of limitations issue, the District Court
The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 7

§§ 1331 and 1338(a). This court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.

11

held that as a matter of law Graham could not recover on any

acts of infringement that occurred prior to February 9, 2002. 

William A. Graham Co. v. Haughey, 484 F. Supp. 2d 324, 336-

37 (E.D. Pa. 2007). The Court concluded that sufficient storm

warnings existed to put Graham on notice of Haughey’s (and

thus USI’s) infringement in the fall of 1991, i.e., shortly after

Haughey left Graham. The Court noted that Graham was or

should have been aware: that Haughey retained possession of a

copy of the Standard Works when he left Graham; that the only

value of the Standard Works to Haughey was to copy them into

client proposals; that Haughey went to work for a competing

insurance broker; and that Haughey was “not a person of his

word” because he engaged in improper competitive behavior by

violating the non-compete clause of his employment and

termination contracts. Id. at 336.

The District Court rejected Graham’s argument that “the

circumstances this court has identified” as storm warnings could

not have put Graham on notice of the defendants’ infringement

because those storm warnings were related to Haughey’s

“departure from Graham in the fall of 1991, before the first

evidence of an infringing proposal prepared by Haughey in July,

1992.” Id. at 334. The Court conceded that “it would be

nonsensical for a statute of limitations to begin running before

the actual injury had occurred,” but concluded that “we see no

reason why the clock on Graham’s claims should not have

started to run at the time when Haughey first began to infringe,

since there is no sign that any of the storm warnings had abated

by that point.” Id.

The case proceeded to a second jury trial on the issue of

damages for acts of infringement occurring on or after February

8, 2002. The jury again returned a verdict for Graham, this time

in the amount of $1.4 million against USI and $268,000 against

Haughey. Graham timely appealed on April 2, 2008 and USI

timely cross-appealed on April 15, 2008.7
§ 1291.

12

II.

DISCUSSION

A. Statute of Limitations

The Copyright Act provides that “[n]o civil action shall

be maintained under the provisions of this title unless it is

commenced within three years after the claim accrued.” 17

U.S.C. § 507(b). Because Graham filed this action on February

8, 2005, the accrual of Graham’s claims must be evaluated as of

February 9, 2002. However, in continuing infringement cases

such as this, “[e]ach act of infringement is a distinct harm giving

rise to an independent claim for relief.” Stone v. Williams, 970

F.2d 1043, 1049 (2d Cir. 1992) (citing Mount v. Book-of-theMonth Club, Inc., 555 F.2d 1108 (2d Cir. 1977)). Thus, as the

District Court correctly held, Graham was not time-barred from

recovering for any acts of infringement that occurred on or after

February 9, 2002, regardless of whether the injury or discovery

rule applies to determine the accrual of claims under the

Copyright Act. That is not in dispute. Instead, the parties differ

on whether Graham may also recover for any acts of

infringement that occurred prior to February 9, 2002.

1. Claim Accrual Rule

The question of whether the discovery rule or the injury

rule applies to determine when a civil cause of action accrues

under the Copyright Act is a legal one. Under the discovery rule,

a “cause of action accrues ‘when the plaintiff discovers, or with

due diligence should have discovered, the injury that forms the

basis for the claim.’” Disabled in Action of Pennsylvania v. Se.

Pennsylvania Transp. Auth., 539 F.3d 199, 209 (3d Cir. 2008)

(quoting Romero v. Allstate Corp., 404 F.3d 212, 222 (3d Cir.

2005)). Under the injury rule, a cause of action accrues at the

time of the injury. In this case, if the injury rule were to apply,

Graham would be time barred from recovery on any acts of
13

infringement that occurred prior to February 9, 2002.

Although we have not previously addressed this issue,

eight of our sister courts of appeals have applied the discovery

rule to civil actions under the Copyright Act. See Warren

Freedenfeld Assocs., Inc. v. McTigue, 531 F.3d 38, 44-46 (1st

Cir. 2008); Comcast v. Multi-Vision Elecs., Inc., 491 F.3d 938,

944 (8th Cir. 2007); Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony/ATV

Publ’g, LLC, 477 F.3d 383, 390 (6th Cir. 2007); Polar Bear

Prods., Inc. v. Timex Corp., 384 F.3d 700, 705-07 (9th Cir.

2004); Gaiman v. McFarlane, 360 F.3d 644, 653 (7th Cir. 2004);

Lyons P’ship, L.P. v. Morris Costumes, Inc., 243 F.3d 789, 796

(4th Cir. 2001); Daboub v. Gibbons, 42 F.3d 285, 291 (5th Cir.

1995); Stone v. Williams, 970 F.2d 1043, 1048 (2d Cir. 1992).

USI contends that these precedents are not persuasive

because the question of whether the injury or discovery rule

applied was not squarely raised in most of them and, more

importantly, they fail to address the Supreme Court’s decision in

TRW Inc. v. Andrews, 534 U.S. 19 (2001).

The TRW case did not arise under the Copyright Act but

under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). In reaching the

statute of limitations issue, the Ninth Circuit held that, because

Congress had not “‘expressly legislated otherwise,’” the

discovery rule applied to claims under the FCRA. Id. at 26

(quoting Andrews v. TRW Inc., 225 F.3d 1063, 1067 (9th Cir.

2000)). The Supreme Court rejected that approach and held that

the discovery rule did not apply to actions under the FCRA

because “the text and structure of [the FCRA] evince Congress’

intent to preclude judicial implication of a discovery rule.” Id. at

28. Specifically, the Court reasoned that because the FCRA

provided that the “statute of limitations runs from ‘the date on

which the liability arises,’ subject to a single [statutory]

exception for cases involving a defendant’s willful

misrepresentation of material information,” the “most natural

reading of [the FCRA] is that Congress implicitly excluded a

general discovery rule by explicitly including a more limited

one.” Id. (quoting 15 U.S.C. § 1681p).
14

This court had the occasion to interpret and apply TRW

when it was faced with the issue of the statute of limitations

applicable to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the

Rehabilitation Act. Disabled in Action, 539 F.3d at 208-09. 

Because neither act included an express statute of limitations, we

applied the two-year state statute of limitations. Id. at 208. In

reaching the “more difficult question” of when the two year

statute begins to run, id., we interpreted TRW to require the

following inquiry to determine the applicable accrual rule for

federal causes of action. First, “[w]here Congress has specified

an accrual date by ‘explicit command’ or ‘by implication from

the structure and text of the statute,’ we defer to its directive.” 

Id. at 209 (quoting TRW, 534 U.S. at 27-28). Second, “‘[i]n the

absence of a contrary directive from Congress,’ we apply the

‘federal discovery rule.’” Id. (quoting Romero, 404 F.3d at 222).

USI would have us set aside that analysis, applied by this

court less than a year ago, in favor of a single district court

decision in another circuit which used the injury rule to

determine when claims accrue under the Copyright Act. See

Auscape Int’l v. Nat’l Geographic Soc’y, 409 F. Supp. 2d 235,

247 (S.D.N.Y. 2004). We decline to do so. Even the court in

Auscape conceded that “the text and structure of the [Copyright

Act] lend no guidance” as to “Congress’ intent with regard to

when an infringement claim accrues.” Id. at 244. This

concession answers in the negative the first question raised in

Disabled in Action: whether “Congress has specified an accrual

date by ‘explicit command’ or ‘by implication from the structure

and text of the statute.’” 539 F.3d at 209 (quoting TRW, 534

U.S. at 27-28).

Further, the text and structure of the Copyright Act

actually favor use of the discovery rule. As noted by Graham,

criminal actions under the Copyright Act must be “commenced

within 5 years after the cause of action arose.” 17 U.S.C. §

507(a) (emphasis added). Just six years prior to the amendment

to the Copyright Act that added the civil limitations period now

codified at 17 U.S.C. § 507(b), the Supreme Court interpreted

language similar to § 507(a)’s criminal limitations period in the

Admiralty Act (“cause of action arises”) to embody the injury
15

rule. McMahon v. United States, 342 U.S. 25-26, 27 (1951); see

also TRW, 534 U.S. at 32 (noting that petitioner “offer[ed] a

strong argument” that use of the word “arise” in a statute of

limitations provision signals congressional intent to adopt the

injury rule (citing McMahon, 342 U.S. 25)). Significantly,

Congress used different language in the civil limitations

provision (“after the claim accrued”), which the Supreme Court

had previously interpreted as embodying the discovery rule. See

Urie v. Thompson, 337 U.S. 163, 169-170 (1949) (construing

“cause of action accrued” in Federal Employers’ Liability Act

and holding that statute of limitations was not triggered until

injured employee should have known of injury). Given the

maxim of statutory construction that “when the legislature uses

certain language in one part of the statute and different language

in another, the court assumes different meanings were intended,”

Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692, 711 n.9 (2004)

(quotation omitted), Graham persuasively argues that the

criminal and civil limitations periods embody different claim

accrual rules and that § 507(b) should be interpreted to embody

the discovery rule.

USI, once again pointing to Auscape, interprets the

legislative history of the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations

provision as evidence of congressional intent to adopt the injury

rule for civil claims brought pursuant to the Copyright Act. 

However, Congress provided no “directive” mandating use of

the injury rule in that legislative history. Disabled in Action, 539

F.3d at 209.

For example, until the statute of limitations provision now

codified at 17 U.S.C. § 507(b) was enacted in 1957, the

Copyright Act lacked a statute of limitations period for civil

actions and courts borrowed state statutes of limitation for

analogous claims. See S. Rep. No. 85-1014 (1957), as reprinted

in 1957 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1961, 1961-62. USI notes several

instances in the legislative history of § 507(b) in which

congresspersons and witnesses argued that § 507(b) was

necessary to provide a “uniform” or “fixed” limitations period. 

However, these statements reflected dissatisfaction with the use

of state statutes of limitations, which ranged from one to eight
16

years and therefore encouraged forum-shopping. See id. at

1962; see also Copyrights–Statute of Limitations: Hearing on

H.R. 781 Before H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 84th Cong. 9, 35,

40 (1955) (hereafter “Hearing”). None of these statements

addressed the separate issue of when a claim would accrue under

the new federal three-year statute of limitations.

USI also relies on a statement in the Senate Report that

“due to the nature of publication of works of art . . . generally the

person injured receives reasonably prompt notice or can easily

ascertain any infringement of his rights. The committee agrees

that 3 years is an appropriate period for a uniform statute of

limitations for civil copyright actions and that it would provide

an adequate opportunity for the injured party to commence his

action.” S. Rep. No. 85-1014 (1957), as reprinted in 1957

U.S.C.C.A.N. 1961, 1962. Again, this statement does not speak

directly to the accrual of actions, but rather seeks to support the

three-year limitations period adopted by Congress. Moreover,

the fact that Congress believed that infringement was

“generally” a public act does not necessarily imply that, in cases

in which infringement was not public, Congress intended to

reject application of the discovery rule. Indeed, the quoted

passage speaks of whether the injured party has “reasonably

prompt notice” of infringement–an inquiry consistent with the

discovery rule.

USI next points to what we view as an unenlightening

exchange between Representative Shepard J. Crumpacker and a

lobbyist for the motion picture industry during a House

committee hearing. Representative Crumpacker was concerned

that a movie company could make a movie that infringed on a

writer’s script, secretly show that movie in a small town, sit on

the movie until the statute of limitations passed, and then release

the movie generally while claiming that the writer was barred

from enforcing his or her rights. Hearing at 47. The lobbyist

responded that each performance of the film would constitute a

separate act of infringement. Id. at 48. This exchange is not

illustrative of Congressional intent regarding when copyright

claims accrue, but is cited by USI because the lobbyist also

stated that “if [an act of infringement] occurred three years ago .
 USI correctly notes that the legislative history regarding 8

the rejected statutory exceptions to the Copyright Act’s three-year

limitations period was directed toward equitable tolling rather than

17

. . [, then it] would be barred in three years.” Id. That single

statement by a witness at a congressional hearing, which no

congressperson commented on or agreed with, signifies nothing

and is hardly a basis to conclude that Congress intended to apply

the injury rule.

USI also notes that Congress considered including certain

express provisions to permit tolling of the statute of limitations,

including where the infringer was guilty of fraudulent

concealment, and it argues that the consideration of these

exceptions would have been unnecessary had Congress intended

to apply the discovery rule to claims under the Copyright Act. 

Of course, had Congress included those limited exceptions

within § 507(b), the holding in TRW might well have inclined us

to reject the discovery rule here. But the important fact is that

Congress rejected inclusion of any statutory exceptions to the

statute of limitations period, and did so because “the Federal

district courts, generally, would recognize these equitable

defenses anyway.” H. Rep. No. 84-2419, at 2 (1956).

Moreover, the legislative history makes clear that

Congress intended the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations to

apply “to the remedy of the person affected thereby, and not to

his substantive rights,” id., by which Congress meant that

“[e]quitable considerations are available to prolong the time for

bringing suit,” id. at 3. Further, Congress feared that inclusion

of specific statutory exceptions to the three-year limitations

period “might result in unfairness to some persons.” S. Rep. No.

85-1014 (1957), as reprinted in 1957 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1961, 1963. 

Thus, this case actually presents the opposite situation as TRW:

Congress considered, but rejected, inclusion of specific statutory

exceptions to the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations in order

to ensure that the courts could consider any equitable

circumstances sufficient to excuse a plaintiff’s failure to sue

within the three-year limitations period.8
the discovery rule, and that these doctrines are distinct. However,

as discussed above, the legislative history demonstrates that

Congress rejected the inclusion of specific exceptions to the

Copyright Act’s statute of limitations in order to allow the courts

to consider any equitable considerations necessary to ensure that

copyright holders’ rights were fairly protected. As we have

explained, the “discovery rule originated as an equitable doctrine

to extend the period during which victims of latent injuries could

seek recovery.” Disabled in Action, 539 F.3d at 216 n.16

(emphasis omitted). As this case demonstrates, there are certain

infringements which, like latent injuries, a plaintiff cannot

reasonably be expected to discover at the time it occurred. Thus,

we believe that Congress’ expressed intent to allow the courts to

consider equitable circumstances to extend the time for filing an

infringement action is consistent with use of the discovery rule.

18

Finally, USI argues that use of the discovery rule would

be inappropriate as a matter of policy. USI notes that in TRW

the Supreme Court stated that it has “recognized a prevailing

discovery rule . . . in two contexts, latent disease and medical

malpractice, ‘where the cry for such a rule is loudest.’” TRW,

534 U.S. at 27 (quoting Rotella v. Wood, 528 U.S. 549, 555

(2000)). USI would distinguish copyright infringement, arguing

that “there is nothing intrinsically ‘hidden’ or ‘latent’ about

copyright infringement because it is by its nature a public act

that is only very rarely hidden from the copyright owner.” USI’s

Reply Br. at 16. That may be true in some instances but not in

all. Technological advances such as personal computing and the

internet have “ma[de] it more difficult for rights holders to

stridently police and protect their copyrights.” John Ramirez,

Note, Discovering Injury? The Confused State of the Statute of

Limitations for Federal Copyright Infringement, 17 Fordham

Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 1125, 1158 (2007) (concluding

that discovery rule is appropriate for copyright actions).

In sum, Congress provided no directive mandating use of

the injury rule to govern the accrual of claims under the

Copyright Act. We conclude that use of the discovery rule

comports with the text, structure, legislative history and
19

underlying policies of the Copyright Act. Thus, consistent with

Disabled in Action and in agreement with our sister courts of

appeals, we hold that the federal discovery rule governs the

accrual of civil claims brought under the Copyright Act.

2. Application of the Discovery Rule

The first jury proceeded to calculate damages having been

instructed to use the discovery rule in light of the District

Court’s rejection of USI’s arguments in favor of the injury rule. 

Nonetheless, despite the jury’s finding to the contrary, the

District Court overturned the jury’s determination and ruled that,

under the discovery rule, Graham’s cause of action for copyright

infringement accrued in the fall of 1991 after Haughey left

Graham to work at USI’s predecessor company. Accordingly,

the District Court granted USI’s motion for a new trial. After

cross-motions for summary judgment, the Court granted USI

judgment as a matter of law as to Graham’s infringement claims

for acts of infringement that occurred before February 9, 2002. 

According to the District Court, “storm warnings or suspicious

circumstances about possible infringement were compelling long

before February 9, 2002, but Graham ignored them.” Graham,

484 F. Supp. 2d. at 336. Therefore, Graham could recover only

for acts of infringement that occurred within the three year

period prior to its filing of the instant action (i.e., acts occurring

on or after February 9, 2002).

In reviewing the District Court’s decision to grant a new

trial, we apply an abuse of discretion standard. Fineman v.

Armstrong World Indus., Inc., 980 F.2d 171, 206 (3d Cir. 1992). 

Where, as here, a district court grants a motion for a new trial

because it determines that the jury verdict was against the weight

of the evidence, it is “‘the duty of the appellate tribunal to

exercise a closer degree of scrutiny and supervision than is the

case where a new trial is granted because of some undesirable or

pernicious influence obtruding into the trial’” in order to protect

the jury’s fact-finding role. Id. at 211 (quoting Lind v. Schenley

Indus. Inc., 278 F.2d 79, 90 (3d Cir. 1960) (en banc)). As to the

District Court’s grant of summary judgment, our review is

plenary. Northview Motors, Inc. v. Chrysler Motors Corp., 227
20

F.3d 78, 88 (3d Cir. 2000).

Graham challenges both the District Court’s ruling that

USI was entitled to a new trial on the statute of limitations and

its subsequent grant of summary judgment to USI on that issue. 

That is, Graham argues that the evidence was sufficient to

support the first jury’s finding that Graham was not chargeable

with knowledge of USI’s infringement prior to February 9, 2002. 

Accordingly, Graham contends that we should reinstate the first

jury’s verdict in favor of Graham in the amount of $16,561,230

against USI and $2,297,397 against Haughey.

3. Storm Warnings

We reiterate that, under the discovery rule, a cause of

action accrues “‘when the plaintiff discovers, or with due

diligence should have discovered, the injury that forms the basis

for the claim.’” Disabled in Action, 539 F.3d at 209 (quoting

Romero, 404 F.3d at 222). Applying that precept here, we ask

whether Graham “should have known of the basis for [its]

claims [, which] depends on whether [it] had sufficient

information of possible wrongdoing to place [it] on inquiry

notice or to excite storm warnings of culpable activity.” Benak

ex rel. Alliance Premier Growth Fund v. Alliance Capital Mgmt.

L.P., 435 F.3d 396, 400 (3d Cir. 2006) (quoting In re NAHC,

Inc. Sec. Litig., 306 F.3d 1314, 1325 (3d Cir. 2002)) (internal

quotation marks omitted). USI and Haughey bear the burden of

demonstrating such storm warnings and, if they do so, “the

burden shifts to [Graham] to show that [it] exercised reasonable

due diligence and yet [was] unable to discover [its] injuries.” Id.

(quoting Mathews v. Kidder, Peabody & Co., Inc., 260 F.3d 239,

252 (3d Cir. 2001)).

Graham first contends that the District Court erred

because the storm warnings relied upon by the District Court

predated the first act of infringement. As we have previously

explained, “[b]ecause a potential plaintiff cannot discover his

injury before it has occurred, the discovery rule only postpones

the accrual date of a claim where the plaintiff is unaware of the

injury. It does not accelerate the accrual date when the plaintiff
21

becomes aware that he will suffer injury in the future.” Disabled

in Action, 539 F.3d at 214 (quotations, alterations, and internal

citation omitted). Thus, “the first step in applying the discovery

rule . . . is to establish when the injurious . . . act defined by the

statute actually occurred.” Id. Next, we must “determine

whether that injury was immediately discoverable, or whether

the accrual date will be postponed until it is reasonable to expect

the plaintiff to discover the injury.” Id.

Although the District Court recognized that the statute of

limitations could not have begun to run until the first act of

infringement occurred in July 1992, the Court concluded that it

saw “no reason why the clock on Graham’s claims should not

have started to run at the time when Haughey first began to

infringe, since there is no sign that any of the storm warnings

had abated by that point. Graham is incorrect in its contention

that storm warnings must warn of an actual injury that has

already taken place. . . . A copyright owner has the duty to

investigate indications that infringement is in the offing, even if,

in the course of the investigation, it learns that infringement has

not yet occurred.” Graham, 484 F. Supp. 2d at 334 (citing

Benak, 435 F.3d at 400-01; Mathews, 260 F.3d at 251-52).

We do not agree that the discovery rule operates in the

manner suggested by the District Court. Significantly, neither of

our precedents relied upon by the District Court for the

proposition that a copyright owner has a duty to investigate

infringement “in the offing” supports such a rule. In both cases,

which dealt with a securities action and RICO action, not

copyright infringement, we held that the plaintiffs’ claims were

untimely under the discovery rule because storm warnings of the

alleged wrongs put the plaintiffs on inquiry notice before the

relevant date. In fact, the storm warnings arose after the alleged

wrongs. Benak, 435 F.3d at 398-99, 403; Mathews, 260 F.3d at

244, 253-54. Thus, Benak and Mathews do not stand for the

proposition that prospective plaintiffs have a duty to inquire into

future wrongdoing. Rather, they dealt with the time at which

inquiry notice arose for past wrongs.

Indeed, we have rejected the proposition that the
22

discovery rule places a duty on prospective plaintiffs to inquire

into possible future wrongful conduct. For example, in CGB

Occupational Therapy, Inc. v. RHA Health Servs. Inc., 357 F.3d

375, 384 (3d Cir. 2004), we held that several claims for tortious

interference of contract did not accrue “until, at least, the

plaintiff suffer[ed] injury . . . as a result of the defendant’s

conduct.” We rejected the defendant’s argument that “mere

notice of termination [of the plaintiff’s contracts] triggered the

claim” because the plaintiff did not suffer a legally cognizable

injury until the contracts were actually terminated. Id. We

stated: “Sunrise [the defendant] attempts to take that

unremarkable proposition–that the statute of limitations should

be postponed where the victim is unaware of the injury–and

reverse it, so as to mandate that the statute of limitations

accelerates when the victim becomes aware that he will suffer

injury in the future. That is logically fallacious.” Id. Further,

we analogized CGB to a case in which one person tells another

“that, in three months, he intends to trespass. The tort of

trespass has not occurred until the victim’s property is entered by

the tortfeasor. That the victim was informed in advance of the

inevitable does not alter the accrual of his damages action for

trespass.” Id. at 384 n.9. USI’s argument is no different than the

one we rejected in CGB.

The District Court also saw storm warnings in Haughey’s

departure from Graham, even though that departure was ten

months before Haughey began to infringe. That departure in

itself cannot be considered a storm warning because a copyright

owner does not have a duty to ferret out potential acts of

infringement before they occur. Cf. MacLean Assocs., Inc. v.

Wm. M. Mercer-Meidinger-Hansen, Inc., 952 F.2d 769, 780 (3d

Cir. 1991) (rejecting argument that a copyright infringement

claim was barred by laches because “the district court’s laches

rationale would have put [plaintiff] under a never ending

obligation to discover whether anyone to whom he ever supplied

his software would copy it,” an obligation that the “Copyright

Act does not recognize”). The District Court feared that, if a

copyright owner did not have a duty to investigate infringement

in the offing, then “Haughey could have told Graham on day one

that he was anticipating infringing on day two, and because he
23

was not infringing on day one, the statute of limitations would

have been tolled for years without the need for any further action

on the part of Graham.” Graham, 484 F. Supp. 2d at 334. That

hypothetical is simply not our case.

We have previously recognized that the aggregate “‘mix

of information’ may constitute a storm warning.” Mathews, 260

F.3d at 252. Before determining whether this is such a case, we

must first address each of the District Court’s purported storm

warnings separately. High on the District Court’s list of reasons

for its conclusion that there were ample storm warnings was its

focus on Haughey’s retention of a copy of the Standard Works

when he left Graham in September 1991. However, as the

District Court recognized, possession of a copy of a work alone

does not constitute copyright infringement or a storm warning

thereof. Graham, 484 F. Supp. 2d at 331; see also 17 U.S.C. §

106 (enumerating exclusive rights of copyright owner). 

Nonetheless, the District Court concluded that a storm warning

existed here because Graham was on notice that the “only real

use Haughey would have for the Works was to copy them in

violation of Graham’s copyright.” 484 F. Supp. 2d at 336. That

was a jury argument and the record before the first jury did not

compel that inference.

Although the jury heard evidence that the Works were

valuable because they could be easily copied to provide

consistent and accurate explanations of coverage, the jury also

heard evidence that producers at both Graham and USI used the

Works as reference materials (without directly copying any text)

because they included instructions and checklists for producers

to use when creating proposals for clients.

The mere fact that a copyright owner has notice that

another person also possessed its copyrighted material and may

find it useful to copy should not and does not by itself constitute

a storm warning of possible infringement. Cf. Warren

Freedenfeld Assocs., 531 F.3d at 45 (“There is no presumption

that failed business relationships inevitably will give rise either

to tortious conduct or disregard of proprietary rights. That a

relationship between an architect and a client has become frayed
24

and the client has decided to forge ahead with the project by

engaging some other architect does not, in and of itself, serve as

a harbinger of an intention to violate the original architect’s

copyright protection.”).

The District Court (in its summary judgment decision)

also concluded that Graham had a storm warning of Haughey’s

(yet-to-occur) infringement based upon Haughey’s improper

solicitation of Graham’s clients, in violation of his employment

and termination agreements. However, improper solicitation of

business, if it in fact occurred, is a far cry from copyright

infringement. In In re Merck & Co., Inc. Secs., Derivative &

“ERISA” Litig., 543 F.3d 150 (3d Cir. 2008), we dealt with

application of the discovery rule to allegations of securities

fraud. We held that “simply stating that a smattering of evidence

hinted at the possibility of some type of fraud does not answer

the question whether there was ‘sufficient information of

possible wrongdoing . . . to excite storm warnings of culpable

activity’ under the securities laws.” Id. at 164 (quoting Benak,

435 F.3d at 400) (emphasis omitted) (alteration in original). 

Thus, we concluded that the FDA’s public allegations of

misrepresentations by Merck in its consumer advertisements

were not a storm warning of the securities fraud alleged. Id. at

169-72.

Similarly, even if Graham knew that Haughey had

improperly solicited certain of Graham’s clients, that

wrongdoing did not put Graham on notice of Haughey’s

copyright infringement. The District Court stated that this

conduct was a storm warning of infringement because a “person

who had breached an agreement with Graham in this regard is

likely to infringe the copyright on its Works.” Graham, 484 F.

Supp. 2d at 336. However, inquiry notice demands more than

evidence that a person is a bad actor in some general sense

before a court can conclude that a storm warning exists as to a

specific cause of action.

Moreover, after Graham discovered Haughey’s alleged

improper solicitation of clients in October 1991, it got Haughey

to agree to stop and, significantly, in November 1991, just a
25

month later, sold Haughey and FOG six of Haughey’s old client

accounts. Thus, by the time of the first act of infringement in

July 1992, Haughey’s alleged solicitation of clients was an old

problem that the parties had resolved, not a storm warning of

Haughey’s infringement.

Indeed, Graham’s course of conduct at the time of

Haughey’s separation from Graham demonstrates that Graham

diligently sought to protect its rights in the Standard Works. In

his employment and termination agreements, as well as in the

November 1991 agreement selling certain client accounts to

FOG, Haughey repeatedly agreed to respect Graham’s rights to

its intellectual property, including specifically the Standard

Works. The District Court downplayed the significance of

Graham’s copyright notices, stating: “Graham obviously did not

deem the copyrights on the Works in and of themselves to be a

sufficient deterrent to infringement. Otherwise, it would not

have needed to negotiate a reaffirmation of Haughey’s obligation

to turn over the binders [containing the Works] upon his

departure . . . .” Graham, 484 F. Supp. 2d at 333. That is, the

District Court seemed to suggest that the fact that Graham

sought to buttress its statutory rights under the Copyright Act

with contractual obligations implied that Graham was on notice

of Haughey’s (yet-to-occur) infringement. The jury was entitled

to make the opposite inference, i.e., that Graham was diligently

protecting its rights.

The evidence before the jury was sufficient to support its

conclusion that Graham was not on notice of Haughey’s (and

USI’s) infringement prior to February 9, 2002. There is no

evidence to suggest that Graham had actual knowledge of any

infringement until 2004. Even if Graham was or should have

been aware that Haughey possessed a copy of the Standard

Works when he left Graham, the jury heard testimony that

Haughey was aware that the Standard Works were confidential

information and that Graham had copyrighted them. The jury

also heard evidence that Haughey promised (in the November

1991 agreement) to hold Graham’s proprietary information,

including specifically the Standard Works, “in trust . . . [and]

confidence,” app. at 2084, and agreed not to “use, divulge, or
We exercise plenary review of that denial. Lightning Lube, 9

Inc. v. Witco Corp., 4 F.3d 1153, 1166 (3d Cir. 1993).

26

otherwise disclose” such information, id. Finally, the jury knew

that after Haughey and USI infringed the copyrighted material in

the Standard Works in a number of client proposals, these

proposals were kept confidential by USI.

To summarize, USI was not entitled to judgment as a

matter of law on the statute of limitations issue (and therefore

the District Court erred in granting USI summary judgment)

because the evidence before the first jury was clearly sufficient

to support its finding that Graham was not on inquiry notice of

Haughey’s and USI’s infringement before February 9, 2002 (and

therefore the District Court abused its discretion in granting

USI’s motion for a new trial). Our conclusion should lead us to

reinstate the first jury’s verdict, but, relying on its ruling with

respect to the statute of limitations issue, the District Court

declined to reach USI’s alternative arguments for a new trial. 

First, USI preserved its argument that the jury’s apportionment

of the defendants’ profits between those that were attributable to

infringement (and thus recoverable by Graham) and those that

were attributable to other factors (and thus not properly part of

the damages calculation) was against the weight of the evidence. 

Second, USI argued that the verdict was excessive. We will

therefore remand the case to the District Court to allow it to

consider these issues in the first instance.

B. Causation

We turn to USI’s cross-appeal. USI contends that

Graham cannot recover on any of its infringement claims

because it failed to prove a legally sufficient causal connection

between the copyright infringement at issue and the profits of

USI and Haughey that the jury awarded to Graham as

compensation for that infringement. The District Court rejected

that argument in USI’s post-trial motion for judgment as a matter

of law.9
27

As relevant here, the Copyright Act provides that the

“copyright owner is entitled to recover . . . any profits of the

infringer that are attributable to the infringement . . . . In

establishing the infringer’s profits, the copyright owner is

required to present proof only of the infringer’s gross revenue,

and the infringer is required to prove his or her deductible

expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other

than the copyrighted work.” 17 U.S.C. § 504(b). Graham’s

theory of recovery was that it was entitled to USI’s and

Haughey’s commissions as “indirect profits” of infringement

(i.e., profits earned not by selling an infringing product, but

rather earned from the infringer’s operations that were enhanced

by the infringement). As explained by the Ninth Circuit, “§

504(b) creates a two-step framework for recovery of indirect

profits: 1) the copyright claimant must first show a causal nexus

between the infringement and the [infringer’s] gross revenue;

and 2) once the casual nexus is shown, the infringer bears the

burden of apportioning the profits that were not the result of

infringement.” Polar Bear Prods., 384 F.3d at 711.

USI contends that Graham failed to satisfy its burden

because Graham lacked any evidence connecting “the

infringement–that is to say, the use of Graham’s copyrighted

language–and the decision of the client to purchase insurance

through USI.” USI’s Br. at 66. However, Graham’s expert

identified client proposals issued by USI that included infringing

language and then calculated the revenues obtained by USI from

those clients after the client had received an infringing proposal. 

The jury also heard testimony from USI personnel that the

written proposals (including, presumably, those with infringing

language) were an important part of the sales process–in fact,

Haughey even testified that some clients were convinced to

purchase insurance through USI on the basis of the

proposals–and that it was USI’s practice to review the proposal’s

contents “page by page” with the client. Moreover, Graham

introduced evidence that the Standard Works were valuable in

part because they could be easily copied to provide consistent

and accurate explanations of coverage comprehensible to lay

people. Graham also introduced evidence that FOG had nothing

like the Standard Works when Haughey first arrived; that FOG
28

and USI made electronic and paper copies of the Standard

Works available to their employees; and that FOG and USI

encouraged their producers to use the Standard Works. Finally,

the District Court instructed the jury that it could draw an

inference against USI based on USI’s destruction of evidence

relevant to infringement (certain client proposals).

We agree with the District Court that a reasonable jury

could conclude from this evidence that Graham met its initial

burden to demonstrate that the infringement contributed to USI’s

profits. The opinion of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth

Circuit in Andreas v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., 336 F.3d 789

(8th Cir. 2003), is instructive. There, Volkswagen (d/b/a Audi)

infringed Andreas’ copyrighted poem by including text from the

poem in one commercial that was part of a three-commercial ad

campaign for the Audi TT automobile. Id. at 791-92. After the

jury awarded Andreas a portion of Audi’s profits for the Audi

TT during the period of infringement, the district court granted

Audi judgment as a matter of law. Id. The Court of Appeals

reversed, holding that Andreas only bore the burden of proving

“whether Audi profited from the infringing commercial at all.” 

Id. at 796. It concluded that Audi did so in light of evidence that

the “infringement was the centerpiece of [the] commercial;” that

“Audi enthusiastically presented the commercial to its dealers;”

that sales of the Audi TT exceeded projections; that the ad

campaign received high ratings; and that Audi paid its

advertising consultant a bonus based on the success of the

campaign. Id. at 796-97.

Similarly, Graham appropriately sought to recover only

USI’s and Haughey’s commissions from their clients that were

provided with infringing proposals. Graham also showed that

the written proposals were important to USI’s clients, that the

infringed language from the Standard Works contributed to the

success of those proposals, and that USI urged its employees to

use the Standard Works.

In Andreas, the Eighth Circuit also rejected Audi’s

argument that Andreas was required to provide testimony that

purchasing decisions were influenced by the commercial,
 Indeed, at trial, USI presented evidence on the issue of 10

apportionment and devoted a significant portion of its closing

argument to the issue, and the jury ultimately reduced Graham’s

requested profits by thirty percent to account for the contribution

of USI’s non-infringing conduct to its revenues.

29

reasoning that “[o]nce a nexus was shown . . . [and] Andreas

establish[ed] Audi’s gross revenue . . . [,]Audi then bore the

burden of establishing that its profit was attributable to factors

other than the infringing words: the other two commercials[,] . . .

customer loyalty, brand recognition, etc.” 336 F.3d at 797. 

Similarly, as noted by Graham, USI’s contention that Graham

was required to show that the infringement was “an essential and

integral key” to its clients’ decisions to purchase insurance

through USI misconstrues the parties’ burdens of proof under 17

U.S.C. § 504(b). USI’s Br. at 68. This argument relates to the

apportionment of USI’s profits between USI’s infringing and

non-infringing conduct, a matter over which USI bore the burden

of proof. In order to satisfy its initial burden of proof, Graham 10

was required to prove only that the profits it sought to recover

were “reasonably related to the infringement,” On Davis v. Gap,

Inc., 246 F.3d 152, 160 (2d Cir. 2001), and Graham did so here.

In sum, the District Court correctly rejected USI’s motion

for judgment as a matter of law on the issue of causation after

finding that Graham had satisfied its burden of proof under 17

U.S.C. § 504(b). On remand, USI may renew its related

contentions that the jury’s apportionment of its profits was

against the weight of the evidence and that the verdict was

excessive.

III.

CONCLUSION

We will affirm the District Court’s rejection of USI’s

motion for judgment as a matter of law with respect to the

causation issue. Although we agree with the District Court’s

ruling that the discovery rule applies to copyright infringement
30

claims, we will reverse the District Court’s orders granting USI’s

motions for a new trial and summary judgment with respect to

accrual of the statute of limitations issue. We remand only so

that the District Court may decide defendants’ arguments

concerning apportionment and excessiveness of the verdict. If

the District Court rejects these arguments, it shall reinstate the

verdict of the first jury and undertake any necessary further

proceedings consistent with this opinion.