Foley Partner Jeff Simmons and Associate Eric Hatchell recently secured a victory in a copyright infringement case brought against clients Sconnie Nation LLC and Underground Printing-Wisconsin, LLC. The apparel company created and sold a t-shirt that featured a photograph of Madison, Wisconsin Mayor Paul Soglin and criticized the Mayor’s policies. The photograph was copied from the City of Madison’s Web site and was considered the Mayor’s “Official Portrait.” Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker granted Foley’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that the t-shirt qualified as a fair use of the photograph because, among other things, the defendants used the original photograph “as raw material to create something entirely new with a different aesthetic, message and meaning.”
