Second Circuit – Copyright infringement: Andy Warhol Found. For the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith

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United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Copyright infringement

Fair use – Substantially similar

Andy Warhol Found. For the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith

19-2420-cv

Judges Jacobs, Lynch, and Sullivan

Background: The defendants appealed from the grant of summary judgment to the plaintiff on its complaint for a declaratory judgment of fair use and dismissing the defendants’ counterclaim for copyright infringement. At issue is a series of silkscreen prints and pencil illustrations created by artist Andy Warhol based on a 1981 photograph of the musical artist Prince taken by the defendant in her studio, which holds a copyright in the photograph. The photograph was licensed to Vanity Fair magazine for use as an artist reference. Warhol did not stop at the image he was commissioned to create, but created fifteen additional works.

Ruling: The Second Circuit reversed. The court held that the district court erred in its assessment and application of the fair-use factors and that the works in question do not qualify as fair use. Further, the Prince Series works at issue are substantially similar to the Goldsmith Photograph as a matter of law.

Thomas G. Hentoff, of Williams & Connolly, for the defendants-appellants; Luke Nikas, of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, for the plaintiff-appellee.