US Supreme Court won't hear Hearst copyright appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Hearst Communications' [RIC:RIC:HRSTV.UL] appeal of a decision that allowed the media giant to be sued for allegedly misusing a photographer's pictures of the former Guinness family estate in Ireland.

The high court was considering taking up the case to clarify how long copyright owners can wait to sue for infringement after learning that their rights have been violated. Three justices advocated for hearing the case in a dissent to a separate copyright ruling earlier this month.

Hearst "expects the issue to be back before the Court in light of that dissent," company attorney Jonathan Donnellan said in an email. "We're glad we were able to focus attention on this important issue."

Photographer Antonio Martinelli's attorney Craig Sanders of Sanders Law Group said the ruling was "extremely important and encouraging news for copyright holders."

Paris-based Martinelli said in his 2021 lawsuit that Hearst's newspapers and websites included seven of his photos of Luggala, the ancestral home of the family that created Guinness beer, in news articles without his permission beginning in 2017.

Hearst argued that the case should be dismissed based on U.S. copyright law's three-year time bar for bringing lawsuits. The company admitted to infringing Martinelli's copyrights if its argument failed, and agreed that Martinelli would be entitled to $10,000 in damages if he won.

A Houston federal court ruled for Martinelli, finding the three-year deadline was extended because he did not discover the infringement until 2018. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision last year.

Hearst asked the Supreme Court to take up the case and reconsider the so-called "discovery rule," arguing it created a circuit split that has led to "inconsistent and unpredictable rulings."

Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito called for hearing the case in a dissent to a separate decision on the proper time limit for copyright damages. Gorsuch wrote in the dissent that the U.S. Copyright Act "almost certainly does not tolerate a discovery rule."

The case is Hearst Newspapers LLC v. Martinelli, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 23-474.

For Hearst: Jonathan Donnellan of Hearst Corp

For Martinelli: Craig Sanders of Sanders Law Group

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