Indiana Intellectual Property Law News

Northern District of Indiana – Copyright lawyers for Plaintiff Design Basics, LLC of Omaha, Nebraska filed three intellectual property complaints in the Northern District of Indiana alleging copyright infringement.

Plaintiffs are in the business of creating, marketing, publishing and licensing the use of architectural works and technical drawings of those works. Defendants are Indiana home designers and homebuilders.

Defendant in the first lawsuit is Miller Builders Inc. of St. Joseph County, Indiana. In the second lawsuit, two Defendants are listed, Citation Homes, Inc. and Citation Partners, LLC d/b/a Citation Partners, both of Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Defendants in the third lawsuit are Sky Hill Homes, Inc., By Larry Myers d/b/a Sky Hill Homes; Sky Hill Enterprises, LLC; Fall Creek Homes, Inc.; Fall Creek Development Corp. and Barry Light, all of Allen County, Indiana. W. L. Martin Home Designs LLC of Jacksonville, Florida joined as a second Plaintiff in the Sky Hill litigation.

Design Basics asserts that Miller Builders violated the copyright of a single work titled “Plan No. 2244 – Standley,” which has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office under Certificate Nos. VA 434-218 and 752-162.

Defendants in the Citation and Sky Hill lawsuits are accused of violating multiple copyrighted works. Design Basics contends that Citation Defendants infringed copyrights in the following works:

Title                                       Registration Certificate Nos.
Plan No. 1330 – Trenton           VA 314-016, 694-094 & 756-041
Plan No. 1380 – Paterson         VA 314-024 & 694-094
Plan No. 1748 – Sinclair            VA 371-214, 694-094 & 726-353
Plan No. 1752 – Lancaster        VA 371-204, 694-094 & 756-041

Design Basics and Martin Home Designs list numerous allegations of copyright infringement in the lawsuit against the Sky Hill Defendants:

Title                                      Registration Certificate No.
Plan No. 1019 – Hazelton         VA 314-029, 726-355 & 694-093
Plan No. 1032 – Monte Vista    VA 282-203 & 752-162
Plan No. 1551 – Logan             VA 344-872 & 752-162
Plan No. 2219 – Shannon         VA 434-181, 752-162 & 1-950-217
Plan No. 2235 – Albany            VA 1-929-121, 434-219 & 756-041
Plan No. 2281 – Ingram            VA 434-179, 752-162 & 1-3340447752
Plan No. 3577 – Bennett           VA 682-208, 682-207, 694-095 & 710-605
Plan No. 4642 – Ackerly           VA 1-302-564
Plan No. 8013 – Gabriel Bay     VA 729-243 & 729-218
Plan No. 8031 – Robins Lane    VA 729-280 & 729-256
Plan No. 8103 – Deer Crossing  VA 726-352 & 726-446
Plan No. 8524 – Elgin               VA 1-074-917 & 1-077-469

Defendants in each lawsuit are accused of having infringed the copyrighted architectural works by “copying, publishing, distributing, advertising, marketing, selling and/or constructing in the marketplace” various works, such as plans, drawings and houses, that were copied or otherwise derived from Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works.

Plaintiffs seek damages, injunctive relief, costs and attorneys’ fees.

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Fort Wayne, Indiana – Plaintiff Angela Brooks-Nwenga of Fort Wayne, Indiana, acting pro se, filed two intellectual property lawsuits. The two complaints, comprising hundreds of pages, include allegations of copyright infringement.

Defendants in these lawsuits, both filed in the Northern District of Indiana, are National Heritage Academies, Inc. of Grand Rapids, Michigan and “Bart Peterson’s The Mind Trust” of Indianapolis, Indiana. Bart Peterson, the former mayor of Indianapolis, co-founded The Mind Trust in 2006.

Plaintiff Brooks-Nwenga alleges that Defendant National Heritage Academies infringed her rights in “Transitioning Into Responsible Students” (“TIRS”), which has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office under Registration No. TX-6-628-223. Plaintiff asserts that she developed and piloted this program at Gambold Middle School in 2002 and that she owns the copyright.

The second lawsuit makes similar allegations of copyright infringement of TIRS against Defendant Bart Peterson’s The Mind Trust. Plaintiff contends that “Andrew Brown Education Model” and “Bridges to Success Model” are replicas of her copyrighted work.

Brooks-Nwenga previously sued The Mind Trust, United Way of Central Indiana, Central Indiana Education Alliance, Phalen Leadership Academies, and Indianapolis Public Schools asserting similar misconduct. That lawsuit, also filed in the Northern District of Indiana, was transferred to the Southern District of Indiana.

Plaintiff seeks injunctive relief, damages and costs.

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Indianapolis, Indiana – A copyright lawyer for Plaintiff Antara Murdock of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sued in the Southern District of Indiana alleging that Defendant Author Solutions, LLC of Bloomington, Indiana committed copyright infringement.

Murdock, who is also known as Antara Shaddod, contracted with Author Solutions in 2009 to publish his written work, “Journey to Consciousness; Who Am I?,” which included cover artwork created also created by Murdock. According to the complaint, these works have been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office under Registration No. TXu-001821785.

This Indiana litigation arises from a dispute regarding the artwork on the cover of Murdock’s book, which Author Solutions published and marketed for Murdock. Murdock contends that he was dissatisfied with the artwork as the cover for his book and that he relayed this concern to Author Solutions. The complaint states that Author Solutions had asked Murdock to sign to approve the final version of the book, including the art on the cover. In e-mails with the company, Murdock asserted that a signature, which related to the cover artwork and was purportedly his, was fraudulent.

In this federal lawsuit, Murdock contends that, by unlawfully publishing an unapproved draft of his book, Author Solutions “willfully used Plaintiff’s copyrighted Works without his permission and that it published, communicated, benefited through, posted, publicized and otherwise held out to the public for commercial benefit, the original and unique work of Plaintiff without Plaintiff’s consent or authority, and acquired monetary gain and market benefit as a result.”

The complaint lists a single count, copyright infringement. Murdock asks the court for statutory damages of up to $150,000, along with injunctive relief, costs and attorney’s fees.

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