Source: https://m.openjurist.org/344/us/228
Timestamp: 2020-02-28 00:44:26
Document Index: 482334173

Matched Legal Cases: ['Arts\n344', 'Arts\n73', '§ 101', '§ 101', '§ 101', '§ 101', '§ 101', '§ 101']

344 US 228 Woolworth Co v. Contemporary Arts | OpenJurist
344 U.S. 228 - Woolworth Co v. Contemporary Arts
344 US 228 Woolworth Co v. Contemporary Arts
73 S.Ct. 222
97 L.Ed. 276
Mr. Kenneth W. Greenawalt, New York City, for petitioner.
Respondent brought this action under the Copyright Act to recover for infringement of copyright on a work of art entitled 'Cocker-Spaniel in Show Position.' The District Court found the copyright, of which respondent was assignee, valid and infringed and awarded statutory damages of $5,000, with a $2,000 attorney's fee. The Court of Appeals affirmed.1 We granted certiorari,2 limiting the issues to the measure of the recovery, as to which conflict appears among lower courts.3
'To pay to the copyright proprietor such damages as the copyright proprietor may have suffered due to the infringement, as well as all the profits which the infringer shall have made from such infringement, and in proving profits the plaintiff shall be required to prove sales only, and the defendant shall be required to prove every element of cost which he claims, or in lieu of actual damages and profits, such damages as to the court shall appear to be just, and in assessing such damages the court may, in its discretion, allow the amounts as hereinafter stated * * * and such damages shall in no other case exceed the sum of $5,000 nor be less than the sum of $250, and shall not be regarded as a penalty. * * *' 17 U.S.C. § 101(b), 17 U.S.C.A. § 101(b).
'In other words, the court's conception of what is just in the particular case, considering the nature of the copyright, the circumstances of the infringement and the like, is made the measure of the damages to be paid, but with the express qualification that in every case the assessment must be within the prescribed limitations, that is to say, neither more than the maximum nor less than the minimum. Within these limitations the court's discretion and sense of justice are controlling, but it has no discretion when proceeding under this provision to go outside of them.' L. A. Westermann Co. v. Dispatch Printing Co., 249 U.S. 100, 106—107, 39 S.Ct. 194, 195, 63 L.Ed. 499.
The earthenware dogs found to infringe respondent's copyright were bought by F. W. Woolworth Company in good faith at a total cost of $914.40. Woolworth's total profit from the sale of the dogs was $899.16. The Court now holds that Woolworth must pay the dogs' copyright owner $5,000. This award is said to be allowed by § 101(b) of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101, 17 U.S.C.A. § 101. We do not think that section authorizes any such manifestly unjust exaction. This Court pointed out in Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 309 U.S. 390, 400—401, 60 S.Ct. 681, 684, 84 L.Ed. 825, that § 101, like an analogous patent law section, was not intended to award a copyright owner both damages and profits, but only 'one or the other, whichever was the greater.' Under this rule, profits only should be awarded to respondent in this case.
F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Contemporary Arts, 1 Cir., 193 F.2d 162, 167—169; Sammons v. Colonial Press, 1 Cir., 126 F.2d 341, 350; Davilla v. Brunswick-Balke Collender Co., 2 Cir., 94 F.2d 567; Malsed v. Marshall Field & Co., D.C., 96 F.Supp. 372, 376 377.