SILVER RING SPLINT COMPANY, Plaintiff v. DIGISPLINT, INC., Defendant., 567 F. Supp. 2d 847

Summary

The court gave no weight to defendant's innocent infringement defense because the copyright notice affixed to plaintiff's catalog satisfied the requirements of 17 U.S.C.S. § 401. Defendant's infringement of plaintiff's copyright was committed with reckless disregard and/or willful blindness toward plaintiff's rights, and was therefore committed willfully under 17 U.S.C.S. § 504(c)(2). An award of statutory damages in the amount of $ 30,000 was just. Defendant was not a "person" under Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-40. Plaintiff registered the domain name with the bad faith intent to profit from defendant's mark, under 15 U.S.C.S. § 1125(d)(1)(A)(i), because plaintiff registered the domain name for the express purpose of keeping defendant--plaintiff's primary and, perhaps, only competitor--from using that domain name. However, defendant could not have recovered damages because plaintiff's registration of the domain name occurred more than a year prior to the enactment date of the ...