In every court case, it’s mandatory for a plaintiff to establish that they are the ‘real party in interest’ and have suffered a ‘discrete and concrete injury.’ This becomes particularly convoluted in the realm of copyright cases due to the numerous photo agency companies striving to acquire ‘exclusive rights’ from photographers, designers, or artists through written agreements purporting to transfer certain rights. The complexity herein lies in the fact that a copyright holder holds a ‘bundle of rights,’ each of which can be separately licensed to different companies. This information was revealed via a recent legal brief on JDSupra.
In order to avoid wrongfully transferring any rights and potentially setting up oneself for unnecessary legal battles, understanding the concept of ‘standing’ is critical for legal practitioners, especially those dealing with partnerships and corporations.
The aforementioned ‘bundle of rights’ is not monolithic; rather, some rights can be invariably transferred or licensed separately. This leads to nebulous situations where multiple companies claim rights to the same work of art. For example, a photographer may license the reproduction rights of a photograph to one company and the distribution rights to another.
Therefore, in the event of a copyright infringement action, the party that can lawfully allege an infringement is the one which possesses the infringed right, and not necessarily the party with the exclusive rights to the work of art in its entirety. In other words, to legitimately establish federal copyright infringement action standing, a party needs to demonstrate a valid legal ownership of the specific infringed right, any other party will lack the necessary ‘standing.’
The necessity to understand and properly apply this principle in the context of copyright law cannot be overstated, given the intricate nature of the various rights a copyright holder possesses and their potential multiparty dispersal. Therefore, legal professionals need to ensure the correct application of the principle of ‘standing’ while dealing with copyright cases to avoid unnecessary legal pitfalls and complications.