A federal appeals court has ruled in a case of first impression that an independent movie production company with disputed ownership of copyrights to three films waited too long to assert infringement.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that Seven Arts Entertainment Inc. therefore is barred from filing an infringement claim against Paramount Pictures Corp. In this case, the panel wrote, Paramount spent more than three years—the statute of limitations under the Copyright Act of 1976—rejecting ownership claims by Seven Arts to the films “Rules of Engagement,” “An American Rhapsody” and “Who is Cletis Tout?”
