Christian Charles v. Jerry Seinfeld, et al.

The Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s application of the limitations period in 17 U.S.C. §507(b) to dismiss plaintiff Christian Charles’s claims of copyright infringement and joint ownership of the pilot episode of the television series “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.” It was undisputed that defendant Jerry Seinfeld had written no part of the pilot, had made no other copyrightable contribution, and had obtained no written work for hire agreement from Charles. When disputes arose about Charles’s compensation, Seinfeld declared Charles was entitled to be compensated only as the pilot’s director, licensed rights to create, produce and exploit additional episodes of the series to defendants SONY and NETFLIX, and neither compensated nor credited Charles. The district court’s dismissal of Charles’s Complaint held that the dispute actually concerned “ownership” of the pilot, and that under Second Circuit law, Seinfeld’s repudiations of Charles’s ownership interest in the pilot accrued his authorship claims, and triggered the 3-year limitations period in § 507(b). But within days of the Second Circuit’s affirmance, the Sixth Circuit decided Everly v. Everly, 958 F.3d 442 (6th Cir. 2020), which held, in direct conflict with the Second Circuit, that only a repudiation of copyright authorship could cause accrual of an authorship claim, and that “[a] person’s authorship of a work can be legally called into question only if it is challenged by another person who herself claims authorship of the work in question.” Only one question is presented: Does a repudiation of copyright ownership in a work by one who is not an author of the work and has obtained no authorship interest in the work cause the author’s infringement claim to accrue?