Games Workshop v Chapterhouse Studios - Post Trial Events

[Mike Dunford]

By have a field day I meant the case as a whole, wherein GW generally played a little 'loose' to put it mildly, and the Court's rulings were similarly...loose. Like not granting summary judgment on a claim when a 30(b)(6) deponent that is the sole witness on copyright infringement says, "This thing is a copy of our idea, that's the best I can come up with." Stuff like that.

Would you mind pointing me to the claim you're talking about? I'm at the brain-leaking-from-ears part of the semester right now, and I'm having a hard time finding it on my own.

That said, denial of summary judgment is non-appealable after trial on the merits. (The theory is that if the plaintiff genuinely fails to produce evidence to support each required element of the claim at trial, the appropriate post-trial remedy is a JNOV motion followed by appeal.) Even if the district judge erred in not granting summary judgment, it's highly unlikely that CHS' legal team will raise that as an issue on appeal.

That's not to say that the appeals court won't review some of the issues that were initially raised in the denied summary judgment motions. I fully expect, for example, that there will be a fairly in-depth review of the district court's treatment of the fair use defense and/or how the court handled functionality concerns regarding the trademark arguments. But that review will take place in the context of the appeal of the judgment, not as an appeal of the summary judgment denial, and sufficiency of evidence will be reviewed based on the total presented to the jury, not on what was produced for the SJ motions.

[Mike Dunford]

There was a bunch of movement in this case yesterday. Judge Kennedy denied both parties' motions for new trial or judgment as a matter of law. He also denied both parties motions for costs, which is a very big win for Chapterhouse. Finally, he entered an injunction against Chapterhouse based on the one that the parties submitted earlier.

I'm in finals period, and won't have a chance to read or pull the documents until tomorrow, but will posts links once I do. I'll double-check this later, but I believe this sets the stage for an appeal, and expect that we will probably see Chapterhouse (assuming that they still plan on appealing) file their notice of appeal shortly.

[Mike Dunford]

Chapterhouse filed its notice of appeal earlier this week. Their opening brief is due in early February, and I'll post a copy sometime shortly thereafter.

ETA: For those of you who might be interested in how the case is likely to affect the aftermarket industry in the coming years, the appeal will be worth watching. I'm still not entirely certain what the issues on appeal will be, but it's clear to me that the attorneys working for Chapterhouse see the potential for something important to come out of the case.