Opinion ID: 586362
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Blann's Cross-Appeal

Text: 29 The Blanns argue, as part of their cross-appeal, that the district court erred in finding that Saxon had not transferred the copyright of PMJB 1 to them, when Saxon gave Blann the ownership rights to PMJB 1. The Blanns contend that Saxon intended on transferring all of his rights to PMJB 1 to Blann. We disagree. Section 202 of the Copyright Act provides that [o]wnership of a copyright ... is distinct from ownership of any material object in which the work is embodied. 17 U.S.C. § 202 (1988). Thus, the conveyance of ownership rights to a book will not convey the copyright of the book. To transfer ownership of a copyright, the parties must state in writing that they intend to transfer a copyright. 17 U.S.C. § 204(a) (1988). Saxon did not do this, and therefore did not transfer the copyright of PMJB 1 to Blann. 30 The Blanns also appeal the district court's findings that they earned $19,843.45 in profits attributable to their infringement of Saxon's copyright of PMJB 1. 17 U.S.C. § 504(b) (1988). Saxon presented evidence to the district court that Blann's gross revenues from PMJB 1 were $37,048.41. The burden then shifted to Blann to establish deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the copyrighted work. 17 U.S.C. § 504(b). Blann proposed to the district court that the profit attributable to PMJB 1 be calculated with the following formula: gross receipts of PMJB 1 divided by the total gross receipts of Blann's business times the total net profit of their business. This formula would have resulted in a profit of $1,426.70 allocable to the volumes of PMJB 1 Blann printed without a copyright notice. The district court rejected Blann's formula because it incorporated the total costs of overhead and advertising in calculating the net profit. Overhead may not be deducted from gross revenues to arrive at profits when an infringement was deliberate or willful. See Frank Music Corp. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 772 F.2d 505, 515 (9th Cir.1985). The district court found that Blann deliberately omitted the copyright notice from PMJB 1, due to his extensive familiarity with copyright law. The Blanns argue that they did not deliberately infringe Saxon's trademark. However, the district court disagreed and its findings were not clearly erroneous. The district court deducted Blann's costs for the printing, artwork, freight and catalog advertising of PMJB 1, which totalled $17,204.96, from the gross revenues of PMJB 1. After complete review of the record, we conclude that the district court did not clearly err in its findings of Blann's profits attributable to PMJB 1.