Copyright case: Santos v. Kimmel, USA

Lawsuit over late-night sendup of Cameo routine gets no traction on appeal.

A late-night talk show host who mocked a former congressman’s ostensible willingness to “say anything for money” in personalized video greetings made a fair use of the politician’s words, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held. The court, in affirming the Manhattan federal court’s dismission of the copyright infringement lawsuit, emphasized that the TV host used the recorded greetings for a different purpose than the original and that any harm to the market for the politician’s video greetings was a result of the parody and therefore not actionable (Santos v. Kimmel, No. 24-2196-cv (2d Cir. Sept. 15, 2025)).

Case date: 15 September 2025 
Case number: No. 24-2196-cv
Court: United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

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