Situation
The Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy faced a copyright infringement suit when four volunteers claimed authorship and ownership of the Academy’s valuable certification course materials. On summary judgment, our team won a full defense verdict for the Academy before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on the grounds that, among other things, the volunteers were agents of the Academy within the meaning of the U.S. Copyright Act’s “work made for hire” doctrine, and thus the Academy owned all rights in the materials.
Result
After winning on summary judgment, we successfully recovered an award of attorneys’ fees and costs for our client as the prevailing defendant.
Husch Blackwell Team: Melinda S. Giftos, Joseph S. Diedrich and Joslyn N. Benrud