9th Cir. Mulls Rare Jury Flip in Tattoo Suit

Appeals courts don’t like to overturn jury verdicts, attorneys say. But a Ninth Circuit panel appeared willing on Monday to undo a jury verdict that found artist Kat Von D’s tattoo made partly by tracing a photo of Miles Davis wasn’t similar enough to constitute copyright infringement, Annelise Levy reports.

Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said she was “struggling” to understand a California jury’s finding that the photo and tattoo weren’t substantially similar. The defendant’s counsel, Allen Grodsky of Leech Tishman Nelson Hardiman, maintained his client only used the photo as a reference and made her own artistic choices for the ...