Adult Filmmakers Flood Federal Courts

[Wilhelm]

Strike 3 Holdings LLC and Malibu Media LLC — two porn producers with a penchant for online film piracy lawsuits — were the driving force behind a roughly 400 percent jump in copyright infringement filings in April.

Federal courts throughout the U.S. saw copyright infringement complaints rise from 207 to 614 from April 2017 to April 2018, according to Bloomberg Law data. Copyright lawsuit filings shot up 42 percent from March.

Strike 3 and Malibu kept up their copyright enforcement streak last month by handing in 195 filings and 159 filings, respectively. Strike 3 filed 396 cases and Malibu filed 291 in the first quarter of 2018 ended March 31, accounting for nearly half of all new U.S. court copyright litigation.

Strike 3 kicked off its enforcement campaign in late 2017. Malibu Media, a top filer of complaints for the last six years, bounced back in 2018 after months of inactivity.

Entertainment companies typically sue for infringement over peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. They identify users through internet protocol addresses and serve lawsuits to unidentified defendants, called “John Does” in legal actions.

Bodyguard Productions Inc. was another top filer in April, with 24 complaints related to downloads of its action-comedy “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” featuring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. The film company is a unit of Millennium Studios, which has sued for online piracy of its action films such as “Mechanic: Resurrection” and “Boyka: Undisputed.”

California Court Top Copyright Venue

The U.S. District Court for Central District of California, which covers the movie industry hub of Los Angeles, saw the most copyright infringement complaints, with 91 filed in April.

For patent infringement filings filed in April, the California court ranked third, with 37 complaints. The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware was the busiest with 79 complaints, up from 69 in March. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ranked second, with 44 complaints, down by nearly half from March.

The patent complaints shed light on the shakeout following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC. The May 2017 decision said plaintiffs must file lawsuits where a defendant resides or is incorporated, not just where it makes a sale.

Intellectual property attorneys and academics predicted less activity in courts with patentee-friendly reputations, such as the Eastern District of Texas. They also predicted ballooning dockets in Delaware, where most U.S. companies are incorporated.

Patent Challenges After Oil States

A total of 337 patent infringement lawsuits were filed in April down 2 percent from March and 16 percent from a year ago.

Administrative patent challenges dropped a bit at the Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Challengers filed 99 inter partes review petitions contesting the validity of patents at the board, down from 114 petitions filed in March and 116 filed in April 2017 .

The Supreme Court found it constitutional for the patent board to decide validity challenges, in Oil States Energy Services., LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC. Besides the April drop in the run up to the ruling, Oil States, which was heard in November, has had little impact on the volume of validity challenges.

Trademark complaints totaled 250 in April, a 7 percent bump from March and 14 percent from April 2017. Sream Inc., the U.S. licensee of Roor, a German maker of water pipes for smoking, and Luxottica Group, the Italian eyewear company known for Ray-Ban sunglasses, were among April’s top filers of trademark suits.