An American Rhapsody

(2001)   Tags: Paramount

Seven Arts Filmed Entertainment Limited v. Content Media Corporation PLC

Seven Arts was the co-financier of the following motion pictures “An American Rhapsody, “Rules of Engagement,” “Who Is Cletis Tout?,” “The Believer,” and “Onegin”.  Seven Arts attempted to claim ownership of the copyright for each of the films and launched numerous lawsuits to do so.

Judgment: We join our sister circuits in holding that an untimely ownership claim will bar a claim for copyright infringement where the gravamen of the dispute is ownership, at least where, as here, the parties are in a close relationship. Because it is apparent from the complaint that Paramount clearly and expressly repudiated Seven Arts’s ownership of the copyrights more than three years before Seven Arts brought suit, the district court properly dismissed.