A federal judge has imposed sanctions against a law firm for violating a protective order barring its lawyers from using confidential information from one photography copyright infringement case in another lawsuit against the same defendant.

In Grant Heilman Photography v. Pearson Education, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted defendant Pearson Education’s request for sanctions against the law firm of Harmon Seidman Bruss & Kerr for violating the order barring disclosure of secret documents in public or in separate cases.