The Federal Circuit also determined that the trial court correctly denied Crystal's price erosion damages. The court based its decision on the fact that Crystal's expert used unreliable benchmark methodology by choosing a market that had characteristics of an oligopoly, rather than a competitive one in which sales quantity reacts to price changes. Link not available. Kaplan sued Stock, Bruno Benvenuto, Fox News Network, LLC, and Crain Communications, Inc. for copyright infringement and unfair competition. The court granted summary judgment in favor of all defendants.
Stock serves as an agent for photographers in licensing their works to others.
Fox gathers and disseminates news and engages in advertising for its services. Crain publishes business-related newspapers and magazines. Benvenuto is a professional photographer who uses Stock as his agent. Benvenuto also created a photo of a businessperson standing on the ledge of a building looking down, which was used in an ad for Fox that was published in a Crain magazine. The summary judgment motion was based on the assertion that the photographs were not substantially similar as a matter of law.