Warren Pub. Co. v. Spurlock

645 F.Supp.2d 402

WARREN PUBLISHING COMPANY and James Warren, Plaintiffs, v. J. David SPURLOCK d/b/a Vanguard Productions, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 08-3399.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

August 4, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Manny D. Pokotilow, Douglas Panzer, Salvatore R. Guerriero, Caesar Rivise Berstein Cohen & Pokotilow, Ltd., Philadelphia, PA, for Plaintiffs.

Christopher D. Olszyk, Jr., M. Kelly Tillery, Pepper Hamilton LLP, Philadelphia, PA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM RE: MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

BAYLSON, District Judge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  I. Background and Procedural History ...............................  405
     A. History of Warren Publishing and Magazine Publications .......  405
     B. Magazine Cover Art and Basil Gogos ...........................  406
     C. Basil Gogos Art Book .........................................  406
     D. Description and Ownership of the Illustrations Reproduced in the Gogos
          Book .......................................................  406
     E. Plaintiffs' Legal Claims .....................................  409
     F. Procedural History ...........................................  409
 II. Jurisdiction and Legal Standard .................................  410
     A. Jurisdiction .................................................  410
     B. Legal Standard ...............................................  410
III. Copyright Infringement Claims ...................................  411
     A. Ownership ....................................................  411
        1. Ownership of the Gogos Artwork ............................  411
        2. Ownership of the Magazine Copyrights ......................  414
        3. Ownership of Eerie and Creepy Copyrights ..................  414
     B. Fair Use Defense .............................................  414
        1. Fair Use on Summary Judgment ..............................  415
        2. Factor 1—Purpose and Character ......................  416
           a. Transformative Nature ..................................  417
           b. Analogous Cases ........................................  419
           c. Bad Faith ..............................................  421
        3. Factor 2—Nature of the Plaintiff's Work .................  422
        4. Factor 3—Amount and Substantiality Used .................  423
        5. Factor 4—Effect on Potential Market Value ...............  425
        6. Consideration of All Fair Use Factors .....................  428
 IV. Unfair Competition ..............................................  428
     A. Principles of Analyzing Unfair Competition Claim .............  429
     B. Principles Under the Lanham Act ..............................  431
     C. Third Party Ownership of the Mark ............................  432
     D. Abandonment of the Mark ......................................  434
        1. Principles on Doctrine of Abandonment .....................  434
        2. Cases Relied on by Spurlock ...............................  434
        3. Whether Lanham Act Prima Facie Abandonment Presumption
            Applies ..................................................  435
        4. Cases Relied on by Plaintiffs .............................  438
        5. Evidence Offered by Plaintiffs ............................  440
        6. Unfair Competition Claim on the Basis of Abandoned Mark ...  443

  V.  Plaintiffs' Motion for Sanctions ...............................  445
 VI. Motions Concerning the Experts ..................................  446

Monsters have a long history and high standing in the realm of cultural niches. From Goliath in the Bible, to Charybdis and Scylla in Homer, to Count Dracula, the genre of monsters has many admirers. Considering modern media, monsters and movies are a likely pairing. Celluloid dexterity can illustrate—better than any selection of words—heightened emotions, sudden movements, special effects, and whatever "scariness" a fan of monsters desires. The Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde wrote:

Pathology is rapidly becoming the basis of sensational literature, and in art, as in politics, there is a great future for monsters.¹

Many years ago, Plaintiff James Warren published several magazines that catered to the movie monster audience, which was primarily composed of young males. On the cover of each of his magazines, he featured movie monster artwork from many artists, including Basil Gogos. More recently, Defendant J. David Spurlock produced a book that is a career retrospective and biography of Basil Gogos. Twenty-four copies of Gogos artwork, which were previously used by Warren for the magazine covers, are used in the book as illustrations and form the basis of Plaintiffs' primary claim of copyright infringement.

Although the evidence is not clear that Plaintiffs have ownership rights to all of the artwork that is the subject matter of this suit, the Defendant is willing to assume Plaintiffs' ownership rights for purposes of the pending motions for summary judgment. But even assuming ownership, the affirmative defense of fair use requires the Court to grant summary judgment in favor of Spurlock on the copyright claim. And, because this Court concludes that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, shows that Plaintiffs have abandoned the Famous Monsters of Filmland mark, the Court will also grant summary judgment on Plaintiffs' common law unfair competition claim.

I. Background and Procedural History

A. History of Warren Publishing and Magazine Publications

Plaintiffs in this case are James Warren ("Warren") and the Warren Publishing Company ("Warren II"), of which James Warren is the president and sole shareholder. A different company with the same name ("Warren I") was dissolved in 1974. James Warren was also the sole shareholder of Warren I, which printed and distributed several magazines and comic books in the horror and monster film genre. Warren I first published a magazine entitled Famous Monsters of Filmland ("Famous Monsters") in 1958. Each issue was at least 68 pages long, catered to fans of the movie monster genre, and regularly featured articles, photographs, reviews, fan letters, and artwork that all focused on this increasingly popular topic. Two other publications that are at issue here, entitled Creepy and Eerie, were also published by Warren I, and were of a similar nature. Warren asserts that as soon as the magazines went to print, Warren I applied for and received a registered copyright for each issue. Warren provides copyright registration numbers for each issue in contention in this suit, asserting that each registration number establishes his current ownership.

B. Magazine Cover Art and Basil Gogos

Warren commissioned many freelance artists to create images of movie monsters to display on the magazine covers. Basil Gogos ("Gogos") is one artist who designed cover art for Warren I. His work appeared on the covers of 51 of the 191 issues of Famous Monsters (more than any other artist), as well as the covers of at least two of Warren I's other serial publications, Creepy and Eerie. Gogos was a freelance artist at the time Warren commissioned his works, and there is some dispute between the parties as to who retained ownership of the underlying artwork. Warren argues that Gogos, like other freelance artists hired to design covers, sold all rights to his artwork to Warren I. Spurlock, on the other hand, contends that Gogos retained ownership over his art and only sold to Warren I a license for a one-time use of the art. The issue will be more thoroughly discussed below. In any event, Warren I filed for bankruptcy and dissolved in 1974.

C. Basil Gogos Art Book

Defendant, J. David Spurlock ("Spurlock"), is the sole proprietor of the publishing company Vanguard Productions. Spurlock claims that in 2004, he approached Warren about the idea of collaborating on a career retrospective of Basil Gogos. Gogos spent a significant part of his career designing covers for Warren I, and Spurlock believed that a career retrospective about Gogos and his art would be inadequate without acknowledgment of the period when Gogos designed covers for Warren I. While there is some dispute over the substance of these negotiations, Warren and Spurlock never came to an agreement on the project.

Spurlock, however, continued to pursue the idea, and in May 2005, he finalized a deal with Gogos to compile and publish the book. In March 2006, Spurlock began selling the book, entitled Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos ("Gogos Book"). Spurlock contends that the book is a work of scholarship that "carefully and respectfully illustrate[s] the vast output and evolution of the artist."

Spurlock included reproductions of Gogos's art in the book that can be grouped into two types: (a) fourteen images used in the Gogos Book are reproductions of original art by Gogos that were used by Warren as background illustrations for the covers of Plaintiffs' publications, but these images were not reproductions of the magazine covers that used the art; (b) ten images used are exact reproductions² of covers from issues of Plaintiffs' magazines that utilized Gogos art, including the text that was displayed on top of the artwork; and (c) images with no relation to Plaintiffs' magazines. Categories (a) and (b) will be more thoroughly discussed in the following section. In total, the book contains over 160 reprints of Basil Gogos's artwork, twenty four of which were from Famous Monsters, Creepy, or Eerie. The book is in its third printing and has sold 11,000 copies. Spurlock has personally profited from the book's publication, which at one point was priced at $250.

D. Description and Ownership of the Illustrations Reproduced in the Gogos Book

Plaintiffs' Famous Monsters magazine was published over a number of years, from 1958 to 1983, for a total of 191 issues....