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| Perfect 10 v. Google Inc. |
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Google, Inc.
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| Winston & Strawn represented Google Inc. in a copyright, trademark, and publicity law challenge alleging direct, contributory, and vicarious liability theories brought by Perfect 10, a Web site and magazine publisher. Perfect 10 claimed that Google''s method of providing Web searches and image searches to the public, as well as its practice of selling advertising space tied to key words used by consumers in searches, are a violation of the copyright, trademark, and publicity rights claimed by Perfect 10. Our attorneys defended against Perfect 10''s motion for a broad preliminary injunction. Google prevailed on most grounds but the District Court found for Perfect 10 on one ground. In November 2006, one of our attorneys argued for Google before the Ninth Circuit on cross-appeals from the decision on the preliminary injunction motion. The argument focused heavily on whether provision of hyperlinks and the framing of third-party Web sites constitutes a violation of the ?display? and ?distribution? rights under the Copyright Act, as well as on whether Google?s indexing and disclosure of third-party Web sites was a protected fair use. In a landmark decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court?s injunction, finding that Google?s use of thumbnail images in search results is fair use. The court also ruled for Google on a number of other major issues in the appeal, including a ruling that Google?s ?framing? of third-party Web sites did not implicate the display or distribution rights of copyright holders and that Google does not face vicarious liability for infringements by others. |
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