Copyright case: Campbell v. Bennett, USA

Because such relief was not specified in the Act, a demand for such relief required service of an amended complaint upon a defaulting defendant.

A plaintiff who prevailed in a copyright infringement lawsuit against a defaulting defendant was required to serve an amended complaint upon that defendant if the amended complaint newly sought to hold that defaulting defendant jointly and severally liable with other defendants for the profits derived from that infringement, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has held. The court, in reversing the judgment of an Atlanta federal court, found that because joint and several liability for infringer’s profits was not specified in the Copyright Act, the amended complaint sought a “new form of relief” that required service under the federal rules (Campbell v. Bennett, September 7, 2022, Branch, E.).

Case date: 07 September 2022

Case number: No. 21-10978

Court: United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.