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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Amy Sullivan v. Flora, Inc.

Case No.: 22-2386

Officials: Flaum, Scudder, and St. Eve, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Copyright

Sullivan registered copyrights for two “illustration collections,” comprising 33 individual illustrations, for and sued Flora, Inc. for infringing those copyrights. A jury then found that Flora willfully infringed Sullivan’s copyrights and awarded her statutory damages for each of the 33 individual illustrations infringed. Flora appealed.

On the first appeal, the Seventh Circuit answered “a question of first impression on the scope of statutory damages recoverable under the Copyright Act of 1976” (the “Act”). Sullivan v. Flora, Inc., 936 F.3d 562, 564 (7th Cir. 2019) (Flora I). Specifically, the Seventh Circuit addressed the standard for determining whether multiple related works are each entitled to a separate statutory damages award, or if they instead constitute one “compilation,” entitling them to only a single statutory damages award. The Seventh Circuit rejected the test for calculating statutory damages that the district court utilized, which focused exclusively on how the illustrations were copyrighted. Instead, it adopted the “independent economic value test,”: “A protected work has standalone value if the evidence shows that work has distinct and discernable value to the copyright holder,” The Seventh Circuit then remanded for the district court to make that determination because the record at the time was insufficient for it to do so on appeal. The Seventh Circuit reversed, finding that, in entering summary judgment, the district court violated the remand mandate and improperly weighed the evidence. The case must proceed to trial on the question of damages.

Affirmed, Reversed and Remanded.

Decided 03/31/23

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