Decisions in Brief

©2019. Published in Landslide, Vol. 12, No. 2, November/December 2019, by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association or the copyright holder.

Copyrights

A Registration Is Required

Xclusive-Lee, Inc. v. Hadid, No. 19-CV-520, 2019 U.S.P.Q.2d 265437 (E.D.N.Y. July 18, 2019). Jelena Noura “Gigi” Hadid is a well-known international supermodel modeling for major fashion brands such as Fendi and Stuart Weitzman. She was sued for copyright infringement for uploading a cropped version of a photograph of herself allegedly owned by Xclusive (a paparazzi photographer). Hadid moved to dismiss the complaint on the basis that Xclusive failed to allege or obtain a copyright registration in the photograph. The district court agreed with Hadid and dismissed the complaint.