Lickerish, Ltd. V. Uncoached Corp. (D. Mass. 20-cv-11505).

Lickerish is a London-based photo syndication company, and is the exclusive licensee of photographer Dimitry Loiseau. Lickerish says that Uncoached, which does business as “TVOvermind.com,” has displayed one of Loiseau’s photographs without license. TVOvermind is a pop culture site that publishes articles on television shows, movies, comics and the like, and features articles like “10 Things You Didn’t Know About [insert celebrity name here].” A portion of the photograph alleged to have been wrongfully used, a fashion photo of actress Emmanuelle Vaugier, appears at the top of an article entitled “Whatever Happened to Emmanuelle Vaugier?” that was published in July 2018. I note that the article can still be accessed, but a different photograph of Vaugier now appears at the top. Lickerish asserts that TVOvermind’s infringement was willful because TVOvermind is a “serial infringer responsible for infringement on a massive scale.” The complaint does not make any factual allegations regarding the actual asserted photograph, however, in making the willfulness claim. Judge Stearns has the case.