Bouchat v. Baltimore Ravens Football Club, Inc.

346 F.3d 514 (4th Cir. 2003)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

On November 6, 1995, the NFL announced that one of its teams, the Cleveland Browns, would shortly be moving to Baltimore. The team would need a new name and logo. P, a Baltimore security guard, and amateur artist became interested in the new team, and he began drawing logo designs based on the various names that the team was considering, including the name 'Ravens.' On or about December 5, 1995, P created a drawing of a winged shield (the Shield Drawing) as a 'Ravens' logo. In March of 1996, the team adopted the name 'Ravens.' In early April, P sent the Shield Drawing via fax to the Maryland Stadium Authority. P penned a note asking the Chairman of the Authority to send the sketch to D’s president. P requested that if D used the Shield Drawing, they send him a letter of recognition and an autographed helmet. In a jury trial on the issue of liability, the Shield Drawing was found to have been mistakenly used by National Football League Properties, Inc. (NFLP) in NFLP's production of D's new logo, the 'Flying B.' D had no knowledge that the NFLP had infringed anyone's work and assumed that the Flying B was an original work owned by NFLP. D used the Flying B as their primary identifying symbol, and the logo appeared in every aspect of D’s activities, including uniforms, stationery, tickets, banners, on-field insignia, and merchandise. On May 8, 1997, P filed suit alleging copyright infringement and seeking ten million dollars in damages. The court bifurcated the case and first tried the liability issues. On November 3, 1998, the jury found that P had proven infringement of the Shield Drawing. After the court certified the liability verdict for interlocutory appeal, a divided panel of the appeals court affirmed the finding of liability. The matter was returned to the district court for the trial of the damages issue. P sought damages under § 504(a)(1), which renders an infringer liable for 'the copyright owner's actual damages and any additional profits of the infringer, as provided by [17 U.S.C. § 504(b)].' P made no claim for actual damages. The sole question presented for resolution in the damages trial was the amount, if any, of D's profits that were attributable to the infringement. P claims that some portion of essentially all of Ds' revenues was attributable to the infringing use of the artwork. P presented evidence of the gross receipts from all NFLP and Ravens activities. The court awarded partial summary judgment to Ds with respect to all revenues derived from sources other than (1) sales of merchandise bearing the Flying B logo, and (2) royalties obtained from licensees who sold such merchandise. The court awarded partial summary judgment to Ds as to P's claims for profits from 'minimum guarantee shortfalls,' 'free merchandise,' trading cards, video games, and game programs. It held there could be no rational connection between the particular source of revenue and the act of infringement; and that, with respect to the trading cards, video games, and game program sales, Ds had produced unrebutted evidence establishing that the revenues received from those sources were not attributable to the infringement. Only those revenues derived from the sale of t-shirts, caps, souvenir cups, and other items bearing the Flying B logo would go to the jury for a finding on attributability. The jury denied P any monetary recovery. P appealed. P asserts that the court failed to give him the benefit of the § 504 statutory presumption that an infringer's revenues are entirely attributable to the infringement. That presumption creates a question of material fact that cannot be resolved on summary judgment. Thus, whether any portion of an infringer's revenues is attributable to some source other than the infringement is a question that can be resolved only by a jury.