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New Report Finds Declines In Copyright, Trademark Suits
Copyright lawsuit filings declined significantly over the last two years, according to a new report by Lex Machina, which found that overall cases had dipped from a 2018 peak that was driven primarily by surges in file-sharing litigation. According to the report, there were 5,031 and 3,485 new copyright cases filed in 2019 and 2020, respectively, down from a high of 6,536 three years ago.
File-sharing cases, which accounted for 41% of all copyright filings from 2018 to 2020, involve infringement claims brought against anonymous John Doe defendants or IP addresses and often tend to be filed in droves, the report noted. Lex Machina said the drop-off was linked to both the COVID-19 pandemic and a decline in filings by the Liebowitz Law Firm, a notorious filer whose founder Richard Liebowitz has been suspended from practicing in the Southern District of New York for bringing a slew of low-value copyright cases on behalf of photographers. Over the past three years, however, the Liebowitz Law Firm still ranked second among the most active plaintiffs firms, finishing only behind Fox Rothschild, which filed 1,993 cases from 2018 to 2020.
Davis Wright Tremaine, whose clients include Amazon, CNN and ABC, was the most prolific firm on the defense side, defending a total of 208 copyright lawsuits in the last three years, according to the report. The Law Offices of Steven C. Vondran ranked second with 180 cases, and Ballard Spahr and The Russell Firm were third and fourth, each defending more than 100 lawsuits.
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