‘Discovery Rule’ Applies to Serial Litigators Too, 2nd Cir. Says

A district court wrongly denied a litigious photographer the benefits of the copyright-law “discovery rule” because of his sophistication at detecting infringement, the Second Circuit said Friday.

Michael Grecco Productions Inc.'s lawsuit against shoe designer Ruthie Davis shouldn’t have been dismissed as time-barred merely because he actively hunts for “hard-to-detect infringement,” the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said. The broadly accepted interpretation of copyright law’s three-year statute of limitations incorporates a discovery rule, which permits suits brought within three years of when infringement was or should have been discovered. There’s no “sophisticated plaintiff” exception, the three-judge panel ...