Metro. Reg'l Info. Sys., Inc. v. Am. Home Realty Network, Inc.

• Decision Date: 13 November 2012
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 12–cv–00954–AW.
• Citation: 904 F.Supp.2d 530
• Parties: METROPOLITAN REGIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC., Plaintiff, v. AMERICAN HOME REALTY NETWORK, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

904 F.Supp.2d 530

METROPOLITAN REGIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC., Plaintiff,

v.AMERICAN HOME REALTY NETWORK, INC., Defendant.

Civil Action No. 12–cv–00954–AW.

United States District Court,

D. Maryland,

Southern Division.

Nov. 13, 2012.

Margaret Aldona Esquenet, Whitney Devin Cooke, Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett and Dunner LLP, Washington, DC, John T. Westermeier, Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett and Dunner LLP, Reston, VA, for Plaintiff.

Richard Scott Toikka, L. Peter Farkas, Farkas and Toikka LLP, Matthew D. Krueger, Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, DC, Christopher Ralph Miller, American Home Realty Network Inc., San Francisco, CA, Jack R. Bierig, Tacy F. Flint, Sidley Austin LLP, Chicago, IL, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ALEXANDER WILLIAMS, JR., District Judge.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On August 24, 2012, 888 F.Supp.2d 691 (D.Md.2012), the Court granted Plaintiff Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc.'s (“MRIS”)'s Motion for Preliminary Injunction. Doc. No. 35. Pending before the Court is Defendant American Home Realty Network's (“AHRN”)'s Motion to Clarify, Reconsider, or Suspend the Preliminary Injunction Order, Doc. No. 42, and MRIS's Motion for Modification of the Preliminary Injunction Order, Doc. No. 37. The Court has reviewed the motion papers and concludes that no hearing is necessary. See Loc. R. 105.6 (D. Md. 2011). For the reasons articulated below, the Court will GRANT AHRN's Motion for Clarification, DENY AHRN's Motion for Reconsideration, DENY AHRN's Motion to Suspend the Preliminary Injunction, and GRANT–IN–PART MRIS's Motion for Modification.

II. MOTIONS FOR CLARIFICATION AND/OR MODIFICATION OF PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION ORDERA. Specificity of Preliminary Injunction Order

Rule 65(d)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that every order granting a preliminary injunction must “(A) state the reasons why it issued; (B) state its terms specifically; and (C) describe in reasonable detail—and not by referring to the complaint or other document—the act or acts restrained or required.” The specificity provisions of Rule 65(d) are “designed to prevent uncertainty and confusion on the part of those faced with injunctive orders, and to avoid the possible founding of a contempt citation on a decree too vague to be understood.” Schmidt v. Lessard, 414 U.S. 473, 476, 94 S.Ct. 713, 38 L.Ed.2d 661 (1974). The second function of the specificity provisions is to enable the appellate court “to know precisely what it is reviewing.” Id. at 477, 94 S.Ct. 713. Although the specificity provisions are mandatory, “the mere fact that interpretation is necessary does not render the injunction so vague and ambiguous that a party cannot know what is expected of him.” Scardelletti v. Rinckwitz, 68 Fed.Appx. 472, 479 (4th Cir.2003) (alterations omitted) (citations omitted).

AHRN seeks clarification of the Court's August 24 Order granting MRIS a preliminary injunction on the grounds that the Order fails to comply with Rule 65(d)(1). In that Order, the Court enjoined AHRN and all persons acting under its direction, control, or authority from “unauthorized copying, reproduction, public display, or public distribution of copyrighted content from the MRIS Database, and from preparing derivative works based upon the copyrighted content from the MRIS Database.” Doc. No. 35 (emphasis added). The Court concludes that the language of the preliminary injunction Order—particularly the term “copyrighted content from the MRIS Database”—is not sufficiently specific given that the basis of the Court's Order was AHRN's copying of MRIS's copyrighted photographs.

In the August 24 Order and accompanying Memorandum Opinion, the Court denied AHRN's Motion to Dismiss MRIS's claims to the extent MRIS sought to enforce copyrights in the individual elements of the copyrighted MRIS Database. The Court relied on Xoom, Inc. v. Imageline, Inc., 323 F.3d 279, 283–84 (4th Cir.2003), which held that an owner and registrant of a compilation may bring an infringement action on the underlying parts of a compilation where it also owns copyrights in the underlying parts, even where those underlying parts have not been individually registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Doc. No. 34 at 18. AHRN's Motion to Dismiss was denied based on MRIS's showing that it owned copyrights in the underlying photographs of the registered MRIS Database. ¹ Because MRIS had credible evidence that it owned copyright in the photographs and because AHRN was displaying those photographs on Neighborcity.com, the Court also concluded that MRIS had shown a likelihood of success on the merits and granted MRIS's Motion for Preliminary Injunction. As with the Motion to Dismiss, the Court's analysis with respect to MRIS's Motion for Preliminary Injunction depended on MRIS's ownership of the copyrights in the photographs and AHRN's unauthorized copying of those photographs on NeighborCity.com.²

In granting MRIS's Motion for Preliminary Injunction, there was no dispute that photographs containing the MRIS mark and copyright notice were featured on NeighborCity.com. See Doc. No. 34 at 27. However, the Court made no findings with respect to the underlying textual elements of the MRIS Database. MRIS identified no textual elements of the MRIS Database that it independently registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, identified no textual elements in which it otherwise claimed copyright ownership, and did not show that AHRN had engaged in unauthorized copying of textual elements of the MRIS Database. Indeed, the Court's August 24 Opinion acknowledged the possibility that MRIS did not own the copyrights in the underlying textual elements, particularly listing information, but concluded that this did not affect its holding with respect to the photographs.³ Moreover, the MRIS Subscriber License and Access Agreement suggests that MRIS Principal Broker Subscribers, rather than MRIS itself, own copyrights in the underlying textual elements:

All listing information submitted by MRIS® Subscriber to MRIS® for inclusion in the MRIS® System shall be owned by MRIS® Principal Broker Subscriber. To confirm this ownership MRIS® Subscriber hereby irrevocably assigns to MRIS® Principal Broker Subscriber, all right, title and interest in any and all such listing information including the ownership of any copyright rights related to and in any such listing information.

Doc. No. 29–1 ¶ 4.5. MRIS has made no attempt to explain this provision or the role of “MRIS Principal Broker Subscribers.” Given the basis for the August 24 Opinion and Order and the unresolved factual issues with respect to the underlying textual elements of the MRIS Database, the August 24 Order must be revised to specify that AHRN is enjoined from unauthorized use of MRIS's copyrighted photographs.

MRIS argues that the Order should not be modified based on the Court's previous finding that the MRIS Database is entitled to copyright protection as a compilation. In finding that MRIS has established a likelihood of success on the merits, the Court held that (1) MRIS owned a valid compilation copyright in the MRIS Database, and (2) AHRN had copied constituent, original elements of the MRIS Database. Doc. No. 34 at 24–27. First, in ruling that MRIS owned a valid compilation copyright, the Court found that the MRIS Database exhibited the requisite originality for copyright protection. The Court concluded that the MRIS Database required original selection, arrangement, and coordination of thousands of real estate listings, public records, and other information, and exhibited the minimal level of creativity entitling the Database to copyright protection as a compilation. Doc. No. 34 at 25–26 (relying on Feist Publ'ns, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., Inc., 499 U.S. 340, 111 S.Ct. 1282, 113 L.Ed.2d 358 (1991)). Second, in finding that AHRN had copied constituent, original content from the MRIS Database, the Court relied on the undisputed evidence that MRIS's copyrighted photographs were featured on NeighborCity.com. ⁴Id. at 27. Aside from the photographs, MRIS did not identify with particularity any original selection, coordination, and arrangement of informational content in the Database that AHRN had copied. Furthermore, the Court did not conclude in its August 24 Opinion that AHRN had copied the entirety of the MRIS Database, and the factual record at this stage of the proceedings does not dictate such a conclusion.

MRIS alleges in its Opposition to AHRN's Motion to Clarify that based on a recent analysis of NeighborCity.com, AHRN copies the entire Database from an unlicensed data feed, programmatically disables the copyrighted photographs supplied by MRIS, and replaces them with photographs supplied by Google. ⁵ Doc. No. 48–1, Belak Aff. ¶ 2. As evidence of AHRN's copying, MRIS notes that fictitious property listings, created by MRIS for the purpose of quality control and enforcement, are featured on NeighborCity.com. Id. ¶ 3, Ex. A. MRIS also notes that AHRN has the ability to delineate the data on its website and alter content based on its source because the property photographs have only been removed from NeighborCity.com pages with MRIS property listings, but not from the listings of other multiple listing services. Id. ¶¶ 6–9, Ex. C. AHRN disputes MRIS's allegations that it has engaged in wholesale copying of the MRIS Database. Specifically, AHRN maintains that it does not access or copy any part of the MRIS Database, has no method or means of access to the MRIS Database, and has not accessed or attempted to access the MRIS computer systems or database. Doc. No. 54–1, Cardella Aff. ¶ 4. AHRN also asserts that it does not access or copy any part of MRIS's data feed and has not accessed any data feed originating from or belonging to MRIS. Id. ¶ 5. Given these unresolved factual issues, the Court must decline to expand the scope of the injunction beyond MRIS's copyrighted photographs.⁶

For the foregoing...