The Walt Disney Company was sued by Rearden LLC and Rearden Mova LLC, who claimed that Disney infringed on their copyrighted VFX technology to render the CG characters for the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” film. The initial lawsuit was brought only five months after the film opened in theaters back in 2017.
The court has sided in favor of Rearden and has ordered Disney to pay about $600k. The Oakland jury hearing the case felt that Disney knew it could be infringing on copyrights when it used the VFX MOVA Contour software.
Rearden was suing for $100 million, claiming that the “Beauty and the Beast” film succeeded due to the use of their MOVA technology. They also sued Disney for the usage in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and various “Avengers” films. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Paramount Pictures Corporation were also being sued for using the technology.
According to a breakdown the the situation by Loeb and Loeb LLP, Disney partnered with another company, DD3, to use the MOVA program. The courts decided that Disney did not directly infringe the copyright but instead indirectly infringed when they hired DD3, who used the software. Rearden alleged that Disney “directed and controlled” the usage, but the courts felt it was not a sufficient argument for the full claim.
However, the court felt that Rearden did sufficiently provide enough evidence of “active inducement of infringement” by the Walt Disney Company as they did “knowingly induced the infringer’s actions and had the specific intent to encourage infringement of the patent” since they had worked with Rearden and the MOVA program in the past. This would mean they were aware of the patents Rearden had in place.
The jury felt that Disney went to DD3 to perform the services using the MOVA-patented technology, while DD3 was not authorized to do so. It was argued that Disney “possessed the specific intent to encourage infringement by DD3.” This kept the case from being dismissed when Disney tried to get it thrown out.
In my opinion, it sounds like a classic Disney move where they do something underhanded and try to get it thrown out in court when they get sued or try to run people out of money so they drop it. Either way, Disney is only paying $600k.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
Source: Loeb & Loeb LLP
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