Intellectual property litigation rewards lawyers who can move fluently between creative facts and dense statutory law. The firm represents creators, authors, and rights holders in copyright disputes and enforcement matters.
Copyright protects original works of authorship from the moment they are fixed in a tangible medium. Registration with the United States Copyright Office is required before filing an infringement suit and unlocks important remedies, including statutory damages and attorney fees if the registration was timely. The firm handles copyright matters across a range of creative fields, including written works, photography, music, software code, and visual art.
A copyright infringement case turns on access, similarity, and protectable expression. The firm investigates each element carefully. Access is established through evidence that the defendant had a reasonable opportunity to encounter the original work. Substantial similarity is shown through expert analysis when the works are technically dense, or through side-by-side comparison when the lifting is obvious. Protectable expression is the legal limiting principle: ideas, facts, and common tropes are not copyrightable, but the author's specific expression is.
Fair use is the most important affirmative defense in copyright litigation. The four-factor test under 17 U.S.C. § 107 considers the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used, and the effect on the market for the original. Whether fair use applies is one of the most heavily contested questions in modern IP law, particularly in cases involving transformative use, parody, and digital reuse. The firm has handled cases on both sides of the fair use question.
Copyright plaintiffs may recover actual damages plus the infringer's profits, or, if registration was timely, statutory damages ranging from $750 to $30,000 per work, increased up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement. Injunctive relief is available to stop ongoing infringement. Attorney fees may be awarded to the prevailing party at the court's discretion. The firm builds cases around the remedies that actually matter to the client, whether that is stopping the infringement, recovering damages, or both.
Authors, photographers, and visual artists often discover their work being used without permission and do not know what to do. The firm offers an initial assessment that includes a review of the alleged infringement, a check of the copyright registration status, and an honest read on whether litigation makes sense. Not every infringement justifies a lawsuit. The ones that do get prepared with care.
Every case begins with a private conversation. Reach out to the firm to share what happened and find out what options may be available under Illinois and federal law.
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