Jacqueline Mahoney, an Associate with the McDermott Will & Emery law firm has reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reversed a district court decision and found that Minden Pictures, Inc. has the right to sue John Wiley & Sons, Inc. for the unauthorized use of stock images belonging to the photographers the agency represents.
See the full report
here.
Wiley alleged Minden lacked standing to sue because Minden did not have an ownership interest in the copyrighted photographs. The image creators were the copyright owners. The court found that under the terms of the “Agency Agreements” with the photographers Minden had been appointed as the sole and exclusive agent and representative with respect to licensing of the photographs.