The Biggest Copyright Decisions of 2024: A Midyear Report

There have been several notable copyright decisions so far in 2024, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on damages in copyright cases in Warner Chappell Music Inc. et al. v. Sherman Nealy et al.—the only copyright case on the Supreme Court’s docket this term. Significantly, the Justices concluded that there is no time limit on monetary recovery for copyright infringement claims, provided the plaintiff files a claim in a timely manner (e.g., within three years of discovering alleged infringement).

In response to the ruling in Warner Chappell Music, Sterne Kessler Director Ivy Estoesta commented “There was a lot on the line in terms of whether or not the court was going to say whether the discovery rule applies. I think there was some hope that there would be clarification on that issue, but then [the justices] punted.”

Other key cases included Griner et al. v. King et al., where the Eighth Circuit ruled that former Iowa Rep. Steve King unauthorized use of the “Success Kid” meme for campaign fundraising constituted copyright infringement—not fair use; Hayden v. 2K Games Inc. et al., where an Ohio jury found that the depiction of tattoos on NBA players in the video game NBA 2K did not infringe the tattoo artist’s copyrights; and, the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in Larry Philpot v. Independent Journal Review, which reversed the lower court and determined that a conservative news website’s use of a Ted Nugent photo did not qualify as fair use.