Indiana Intellectual Property Law News

Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. and its UK-based counterpart have filed a lawsuit against Indianapolis, Indiana company, Calumet, Inc., claiming that Calumet repeatedly copied and distributed issues of the plaintiffs’ copyrighted publications—Oil Daily and Energy Intelligence News—without authorization. The lawsuit, brought in the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana, accuses Calumet of willful copyright infringement, and seeks damages, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees.

The plaintiffs, long-time publishers in the energy sector, allege that Calumet subscribed to only one copy of their publications but shared the content with multiple employees in violation of clear copyright warnings. According to the complaint, Calumet had been a subscriber since 2004 and renewed its subscription annually for a single-copy license, which explicitly barred distribution or forwarding. Despite this, internal data from Energy Intelligence’s servers showed that, over just a few months, dozens of issues were downloaded hundreds of times on over 100 devices. This pattern, the plaintiffs argue, reveals a systematic practice of unauthorized copying and internal distribution.

The complaint outlines extensive steps taken by the publisher to warn users of copyright restrictions, including notices in emails, on their website, and within the publications themselves. It claims that Calumet ignored these warnings and refused offers to increase the number of licensed users.

Indiana Bible College has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Fred Bock Music Company, Dr. Rosephanye Powell, and up to 100 unnamed individuals or entities. The dispute centers on a piece of music titled “John 1,” which the college claims it composed independently. The defendants argue that “John 1” infringes on the copyright of Dr. Powell’s earlier musical work, “The Word Was God,” which is also based on the same passage of scripture from the Bible.  (Click on the links to hear renditions of each song.)

The conflict began when the defendants sent the college a cease-and-desist letter, asserting that “John 1” was a derivative work and constituted copyright infringement. Indiana Bible College denies these claims and insists that their composition is original and does not use any protectable elements of Dr. Powell’s work.

According to the complaint, the defendants went beyond legal demands by sharing statements online and with news outlets accusing the college of plagiarism and intellectual dishonesty. The college alleges that these statements were not only false but also harmful, damaging its reputation and disrupting relationships with students, musical collaborators, and organizations that had planned to perform or promote the piece. It also claims that the public allegations caused people to question the integrity of the composers involved and led to a loss of opportunities and trust.

Photographer Morgan Howarth has filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana against Angie’s List Inc., doing business as Angi, alleging copyright infringement. The complaint accuses Angi of copying and distributing one of Howarth’s registered photographs without permission to promote its home services business online. The case centers on a single copyrighted image titled “1881_Nash_Glickman_Bath_Shower_2_f.jpg,” created in 2015 and registered in early 2016.

Howarth, a Washington, D.C.-based photographer with over 25 years of experience, claims the image was used without a license on Angi’s Home Advisor website. According to the suit, he discovered the unauthorized use in June 2024 and attempted to resolve the issue with Angi later that year, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

The complaint, however, contains several noticeable errors, suggesting it may have been compiled using a copy-and-paste approach—likely due to the high volume of similar lawsuits Howarth has filed. Over the past 21 years, he has initiated 133 federal cases, nearly all involving copyright infringement. This places him among a small group of photographers who regularly go to court to protect their creative work.