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Katz, Dochtermann & Epstein, Inc. v. Home Box Office

50 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1957 (1999)

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Katz, Dochtermann & Epstein, Inc. v. Home Box Office

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
50 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1957 (1999)

  • Written by Whitney Kamerzel , JD

Facts

Home Box Office (HBO) (defendant) asked Katz, Dochtermann & Epstein (KDE) (plaintiff) to create an advertisement, and KDE came up with a campaign called It’s Not TV, It’s HBO to distinguish HBO from other TV channels. KDE created promotional material for this ad and, after presenting the campaign to HBO in person, left the promotional materials with HBO. For over a year, HBO continued to tell KDE that they were still thinking about purchasing the KDE ad. HBO then ran the ad and claimed that HBO’s other advertising agency, BBDO Worldwide (BBDO) (defendant) independently thought of the campaign. KDE sued HBO and BBDO for copyright infringement and several state-law claims including unfair competition, breach of an implied contract, and unjust enrichment. HBO and BBDO moved to dismiss the state-law claims, claiming they were preempted by federal copyright law.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Griesa, J.)

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