Warner Bros. Ent. Inc. v. X One X Productions

• Decision Date: 05 July 2011
• Docket Number: No. 10–1743.,10–1743.
• Citation: 644 F.3d 584,99 U.S.P.Q.2d 1153
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit
• Parties: WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT, INC.; Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Inc.; Turner Entertainment Co., Appellees,v.X ONE X PRODUCTIONS, doing business as X One X Movie Archives, Inc.; A.V.E.L.A., Inc., doing business as Art & Vintage Entertainment Licensing Agency; Art–Nostalgia.com, Inc.; Leo Valencia, Appellants.

644 F.3d 584

2011 Copr.L.Dec. P 30,096

99 U.S.P.Q.2d 1153

WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT, INC.; Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Inc.; Turner Entertainment Co., Appellees,

v.X ONE X PRODUCTIONS, doing business as X One X Movie Archives, Inc.; A.

v.E.L.A., Inc., doing business as Art & Vintage Entertainment Licensing Agency; Art–Nostalgia.com, Inc.; Leo Valencia, Appellants.

No. 10–1743.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: Feb. 24, 2011.Filed: July 5, 2011.

Douglas D. Winter, argued, Los Angeles, CA, Michael E. Bub, on the brief, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.Sondra Hemeryck, argued, Chicago, IL, Elizabeth C. Carver, St. Louis, MO, Frederick J. Sperling, Chicago, IL, on the brief, for appellee.Before GRUENDER, BENTON, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

A.V.E.L.A., Inc., X One X Productions, and Art–Nostalgia.com, Inc. (collectively, “AVELA”) appeal a permanent injunction prohibiting them from licensing certain images extracted from publicity materials for the films Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, as well as several animated short films featuring the cat-and-mouse duo “Tom & Jerry.” The district court issued the permanent injunction after granting summary judgment in favor of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Inc., and Turner Entertainment Co. (collectively, “Warner Bros.”) on their claim that the extracted images infringe copyrights for the films. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for appropriate modification of the permanent injunction.

I. BACKGROUND

Warner Bros. asserts ownership of registered copyrights to the 1939 Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer (“MGM”) films The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. Before the films were completed and copyrighted, publicity materials featuring images of the actors in costume posed on the film sets were distributed to theaters and published in newspapers and magazines. The images in these publicity materials were not drawn from the film footage that was used in the films; rather, they were created independently by still photographers and artists before or during production of the films. The publicity materials, such as movie posters, lobby cards, still photographs, and press books, were distributed by the original rights-holder, MGM's parent company Loew's, Inc., ¹ and did not comply with the copyright notice requirements of the 1909 Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq. (1976) (superseded effective 1978). Warner Bros. also asserts ownership of registered copyrights to various animated Tom & Jerry short films that debuted between 1940 and 1957. Movie posters and lobby cards for these short films also were distributed without the requisite copyright notice. As a result, Warner Bros. concedes that it has no registered federal copyrights in the publicity materials themselves.²

AVELA has acquired restored versions of the movie posters and lobby cards for The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and several Tom & Jerry short films. From these publicity materials, AVELA has extracted the images of famous characters from the films, including Dorothy, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz; Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind; and the eponymous Tom and Jerry. AVELA licenses the extracted images for use on items such as shirts, lunch boxes, music box lids, and playing cards, and as models for three-dimensional figurines such as statuettes, busts, figurines inside water globes, and action figures. In many cases, AVELA has modified the images, such as by adding a character's signature phrase from the movie to an image modeled on that character's publicity photograph. In other cases, AVELA has combined images extracted from different items of publicity material into a single product. In one example, a publicity photograph of Dorothy posed with Scarecrow serves as the model for a statuette and another publicity photograph of the “yellow brick road” serves as the model for the base of that same statuette.

Warner Bros. sued AVELA, claiming that such use of the extracted images infringes the copyrights for the films. Warner Bros. also asserted claims of, inter alia, trademark infringement and unfair competition. AVELA contended that the distribution of the publicity materials without copyright notice had injected them into the public domain, thus precluding any restrictions on their use. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court granted summary judgment to Warner Bros. on the copyright infringement claim and denied summary judgment to both parties on the trademark infringement and unfair competition claims.

The district court's analysis did not require it to determine expressly whether the publicity materials had reached the public domain. Instead, the district court held that, even if the images were extracted from public domain materials, AVELA's practice of modifying the extracted images for placement on retail products constituted infringement of the film copyrights. Warner Bros. averred that it would not assert the copyrights against unaltered reproductions of individual items of publicity material, eliminating any need to resolve whether the publicity materials were in the public domain.

Based on the finding of copyright infringement, the district court separately entered a permanent injunction against all use of the publicity material images, except for exact duplication of individual items of publicity material. AVELA appeals the entry of the permanent injunction.

II. DISCUSSION

Although certain claims remain pending in the district court, we have jurisdiction over this appeal of the entry of a permanent injunction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). Because the propriety of the permanent injunction depends upon the propriety of the underlying grant of summary judgment on the copyright infringement claim, we have jurisdiction to review the decision granting summary judgment as well. Mulcahy v. Cheetah Learning LLC, 386 F.3d 849, 852 (8th Cir.2004). We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, affirming only if “the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, demonstrates that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Schoolhouse, Inc. v. Anderson, 275 F.3d 726, 728 (8th Cir.2002). We may affirm the judgment of the district court “on any basis disclosed in the record, whether or not the district court agreed with or even addressed that ground.” PFS Distribution Co. v. Raduechel, 574 F.3d 580, 591 (8th Cir.2009) (quoting Palavra v. I.N.S., 287 F.3d 690, 693 (8th Cir.2002)).

A. Copyright Ownership

The plaintiff in a copyright infringement claim has the burden to prove ownership of a valid copyright. Taylor Corp. v. Four Seasons Greetings, LLC, 403 F.3d 958, 962 (8th Cir.2005). In support of its motion for summary judgment, Warner Bros. submitted an affidavit from Kate Chilton, its in-house counsel, tracing the interaction of the various assignment and corporate merger documents that establish Warner Bros.'s chain of title to the asserted copyrights back to 1939. The affidavit stated that Chilton had personal knowledge of the facts recited, based on her review of corporate documents. However, while the affidavit stated that the referenced documents had been produced to AVELA in discovery, the actual documents establishing chain of title were not attached to the affidavit.

AVELA argues that the district court erred in considering the affidavit and that, absent the challenged affidavit, Warner Bros. did not submit evidence sufficient to prove ownership of the copyrights. In particular, AVELA contends that the documents establishing title were not in the record and that Chilton was not competent to testify about chain of title because her review of the documents did not give her “personal knowledge,” as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. The version of Rule 56 in effect at the time of the summary judgment motion stated:

A supporting or opposing affidavit must be made on personal knowledge, set out facts that would be admissible in evidence, and show that the affiant is competent to testify on the matters stated. If a paper or part of a paper is referred to in an affidavit, a sworn or certified copy must be attached to or served with the affidavit.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)(1) (2010) (superseded Dec. 1, 2010). We review the admission of evidence for consideration at the summary judgment stage for an abuse of discretion. Conseco Life Ins. Co. v. Williams, 620 F.3d 902, 907 (8th Cir.2010).

While Warner Bros.'s failure to attach the referenced documents to the affidavit was error under the version of Rule 56 in effect at the time, the error was harmless. See Sugarbaker v. SSM Health Care, 190 F.3d 905, 911 (8th Cir.1999). There is no dispute that the referenced documents were produced to AVELA in discovery. In addition, they were in the record because they were attached to Warner Bros.'s original complaint.³ Despite having had a full opportunity to review the documents establishing chain of title to the copyrights, AVELA points to no inadequacies in the chain-of-title documents themselves. Because the documents would be admissible at trial, the error in form at the summary judgment stage was harmless in this case.⁴ Cf. Walker v. Wayne Cnty., Iowa, 850 F.2d 433, 435 (8th Cir.1988) (finding no reversible error in the district court's consideration of inadmissible hearsay at the summary judgment stage where the same evidence could be submitted in admissible form at a trial).

In addition, we reject the argument that Chilton was not competent to testify on the matters stated in the affidavit. Chilton's affidavit simply explained how to navigate the array of documents showing that the asserted copyrights were valid and that Warner Bros. had obtained ownership of them. “A lay witness may give an opinion only if it is rationally based on...