Copyright And Intellectual Property.

The Copyright Act of 1976 provides that all civil actions must be brought within three years after the claim accrued.  [17 U.S.C. § 507(b)]. The Ninth Circuit joined the Second and Sixth Circuits in deciding a statute of limitations issue in a copyright infringement suit. At the heart of the dispute is the ownership of three motion pictures. The district court dismissed the copyright infringement action because it had been more than three years since the defendant had clearly and expressly repudiated ownership of the copyrights. In affirming, the Ninth Circuit found that an untimely ownership claim will bar a claim for copyright infringement, where the gravamen of the dispute is ownership “at least where, as here, the parties are in a close relationship.”  (Seven Arts Filmed Entertainment Limited v. Paramount Pictures Corp. (Ninth Cir.; November 7, 2013) 733 F.3d 1251.)