Cameo Clips

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that the injury rule, rather than the discovery rule, applied to the three-year federal statute of limitations for a copyright infringement claim over the “Iron Man Theme” composition. The district court additionally found that a three-year statute of limitations for violation of property rights under New York law should apply to the plaintiff's common law claim of copyright infringement of his theme sound recording. Urbont v. Sony Music Entertainment, 11 Civ. 4516. Composer and record producer Jack Urbont developed the theme for such TV shows as The Guiding Light and General Hospital. In the 1960s, Urbont wrote the “Iron Man Theme” for a segment in The Marvel Super Heroes TV show. In June 2011, he filed suit alleging infringement of his hero theme in two recordings on Ghostface Killah's 2000 album Supreme Clientele. The parties agreed that the statute of limitations on Urbont's claims was tolled as of May 21, 2010. Sony then moved to dismiss Urbont's federal and state law claims.

Federal courts in the Southern District apply a discovery rule to plaintiffs in copyright ownership disputes. But District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald observed: “Neither the [U.S.] Supreme Court nor the Second Circuit has ruled on the appropriate accrual rule for federal copyright infringement claims.” Under the injury rule, a copyright claim accrues each time the copyright is infringed, instead of when the plaintiff knew or should reasonably have known of the infringement.