Pablo Star Ltd. v. Welsh Gov't

378 F. Supp. 3d 300
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 29, 2019
Docket15-CV-1167 (JPO)
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 378 F. Supp. 3d 300 (Pablo Star Ltd. v. Welsh Gov't) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pablo Star Ltd. v. Welsh Gov't, 378 F. Supp. 3d 300 (S.D. Ill. 2019).

Opinion

J. PAUL OETKEN, United States District Judge

Plaintiffs Pablo Star Ltd. and Pablo Star Media Ltd., two related companies organized and registered under the laws of Ireland and the United Kingdom, own the copyrights to two photographs depicting the poet Dylan Thomas. Plaintiffs have sued Defendants the Welsh Government, Tribune Content Agency, LLC ("TCA"), and certain John Does for having allegedly infringed their copyrights in these two photographs in violation of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq. (Dkt. No. 99 ("SAC").) Before the Court now is the Welsh Government's motion to dismiss *304Plaintiffs' claims asserted against it in the operative Second Amended Complaint. (Dkt. No. 105.) For the reasons that follow, the motion is denied.

I. Background

Familiarity with the background of this dispute is presumed based on this Court's prior opinions addressing the Welsh Government's earlier-filed motion to dismiss, see Pablo Star Ltd. v. Welsh Gov't , 170 F. Supp. 3d 597 (S.D.N.Y. 2016), Plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration of the Court's opinion granting in part and denying in part that motion to dismiss, see Pablo Star Ltd. v. Welsh Gov't , No. 15 Civ. 1167, 2016 WL 2745849 (S.D.N.Y. May 11, 2016), and Plaintiffs' motion for leave to file a Second Amended Complaint against the Welsh Government, see Pablo Star Ltd. v. Welsh Gov't , No. 15 Civ. 1167, 2018 WL 2041715 (S.D.N.Y. May 1, 2018). The Court details below only those aspects of this case's facts and procedural history most relevant to the instant motion.

On February 18, 2015, Plaintiffs commenced this action against the Welsh Government and various media companies for infringement of Plaintiffs' copyrights in two photographs depicting the poet Dylan Thomas. (Dkt. No. 1.) The nub of Plaintiffs' claims against the Welsh Government is that it has "published, displayed, distributed, and otherwise used unauthorized copies of Plaintiff[s'] copyrighted photographs to in [sic] advertisements, publications, and other promotional materials directed at and specifically targeted towards New York residents," all with the purpose of increasing tourism to Wales. (Dkt. No. 1 ¶¶ 11-13; see also Dkt. No. 26 ¶¶ 29-30 (similar allegations in Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint).)

By an Opinion and Order dated March 16, 2016, this Court granted the Welsh Government's motion to dismiss all claims asserted against it in Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint on the grounds of improper service and improper venue. (Dkt. No. 53.) With respect to venue, the Court held in relevant part that Plaintiffs had not alleged facts sufficient to justify venue in this district because they had

not alleged that any of the specific conduct at issue occurred in this district, let alone a "substantial part" of it. Neither Plaintiffs nor the Welsh Government reside in the United States. The only concrete infringing materials that Plaintiffs can identify are materials that were available online. But the fact that an infringing material is accessible via the internet in a jurisdiction is hardly sufficient to conclude that this infringement occurred in this district for the purposes of venue. Indeed, all of the Welsh Government's relevant conduct-including the creation and maintenance of the websites at issue-appears to have occurred abroad. On this basis, the Court cannot conclude that a substantial part of the events giving rise to this claim occurred in New York.

(Dkt. No. 53 at 16 (internal citations and footnotes omitted).) Plaintiffs then moved for reconsideration of that decision (Dkt. No. 58), and the Court denied that motion on May 11, 2016 (Dkt. No. 65).

Plaintiffs subsequently moved for leave to replead their allegations against the Welsh Government (Dkt. No. 73), attaching to their motion a proposed new pleading that is now the operative Second Amended Complaint (compare Dkt. No. 75-1, with Dkt. No. 99). Defendant TCA filed an opposition to Plaintiffs' motion for leave to replead, asserting in substance that granting Plaintiffs leave to replead would be futile because this district remained an improper venue for Plaintiffs' claims against the Welsh Government. (Dkt. No. 78.) The Court disagreed. By an *305Opinion and Order dated May 1, 2018, the Court granted Plaintiffs leave to file the Second Amended Complaint, holding that Plaintiffs' new "allegations, taken as true, plausibly establish[ed] that the Welsh Government undertook significant actions in this district that [were] material to its allegedly unauthorized copying of Plaintiffs' photographs." (Dkt. No. 96 at 5.) Among "Plaintiffs' factual allegations [relevant to that conclusion] include[d] the following:

The Welsh Government has a permanent presence in New York and maintains offices in New York City. The Welsh Government created infringing "promotional materials" such as "advertisements, brochures, pamphlets, [and] New York City walking tour maps," which included unauthorized copies of Plaintiffs' photographs. In addition, the Welsh Government created display panels for an exhibition called "Welsh in America ," which made unauthorized use of Plaintiffs' photographs. Prior to creating these materials, the Welsh Government drafted a report detailing its strategies to promote tourism to Wales, and identified the United States as one of its key target markets.
Moreover, Plaintiffs allege, on information and belief, that "the Welsh Government distributed and loaned out copies" of the infringing promotional materials from its offices in New York City, and loaned out and "publicly displayed the infringing panels of the Welsh in America exhibition in New York City."

(Dkt. No. 96 at 4-5 (citing SAC ¶¶ 16, 18, 22-23; 27-29; 32-34; Dkt. Nos. 75-2, 75-3) (footnotes omitted).) In response to TAC's contention that the Court had previously rejected similar arguments when denying Plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration, the Court explained that "unlike at the motion-for-reconsideration stage, the Court ... [was required to] draw all inferences in favor of Plaintiffs" in connection with their motion to replead, and concluded that "any deficiencies addressed in the Court's opinion on reconsideration ha[d] been remedied by the plausible information-and-belief allegations of the" Second Amended Complaint. (Dkt. No. 96 at 6 n.5.) Finally, the Court also declined to address TAC's one-sentence suggestion that the Welsh Government might be immune from suit on the basis of sovereign immunity, explaining that the "Welsh Government will be free to raise any immunity defense on its own behalf in response to the SAC." (Dkt. No. 96 at 7 n.6.)

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378 F. Supp. 3d 300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pablo-star-ltd-v-welsh-govt-ilsd-2019.