Who Is Cletis Tout?

(2001)   Tags: Paramount

Seven Arts Filmed Entertainment Limited v. Content Media Corporation PLC

Seven Arts was the co-financier of the following motion pictures “Who Is Cletis Tout?,” “Rules of Engagement,” “An American Rhapsody,“ “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.