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Case Summary

Sicre de Fontbrune v. Wofsy

Sicre de Fontbrune v. Wofsy, No. 05957 (N.D. Cal. March 12, 2014), rev’d and remanded, (9th Cir. Sept. 26, 2016), partial sum. judgment for Def., (N.D. Cal. Sept. 12, 2019), rev’d and remanded, (9th Cir. Jul. 13, 2022).

Related case in France: Paris, 4e, 25 Sept. 2001, (Nos. 1999/05665, 1999/08920).

 

Précis

This multi-jurisdictional  dispute spanning over two decades examined whether a judgment rendered by a French court in the copyright infringement lawsuit  related to Pablo Picasso by Christian Zervos, Catalogue of Works, 1895-1972 (the “Zervos Catalogue”) was enforceable in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Yves Sicre de Fontbrune, an owner of the Zervos Catalogue and its underlying intellectual property rights, sued publisher Alan Wofsy in France for releasing books that contained reproductions of photographs from the Zervos Catalogue without permission. The French court ruled...

 






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