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9th Circuit Says End Steinbeck Copyright Fight
In a nearly half-century-long legal dispute over the rights to John Steinbeck's works, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's $5 million compensatory damages award against the author's daughter-in-law but vacated punitive damages against the heir. Kaffaga v. Estate of Steinbeck, 18-55336. The Ninth Circuit told Steinbeck's family to stop making the same arguments in court over the enforceability of a 1983 agreement that designated family members' controlling rights to Steinbeck's books, which have been contested ever since his 1968 death.
"This has to end," wrote Ninth Circuit Judge Richard Tallman on behalf of a circuit court panel that included Judges Sandra S. Ikuta and N. Randy Smith. "We cannot say it any clearer."
The Ninth Circuit's decision in the long-winded litigation fittingly began with a prologue and was divided into chapters that started with quotes from Steinbeck and other authors such as Charles Dickens, who was invoked to characterize how the case has drudged along.
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